


Runaway Spider

by KK3416



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Dead Aunt May, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, Orphan Peter Parker, Parent Bruce Banner, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-14 05:31:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 34,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14763548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KK3416/pseuds/KK3416
Summary: Living on the streets after Aunt May passes away, Peter avoids getting close to anyone. He stops being Spider-man after it only causes him to lose all of those he cares about. He made one mistake that ruined his attempts to isolate himself: he grabs the attention of Bruce Banner and Tony Stark. The other Avengers soon follow as Tony does not take no as an answer.Also on fanfiction.net under same username





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I own only the idea for the story and the character Gran

Peter Parker POV:

"Are you sure you don't want any money? You sure look like you need it, with how skinny you are," commented the old lady I helped out. She was trying to repair her flower store after it got destroyed. While I have stopped going out as Spider-man, I couldn't let her do it alone.

"I'm sure, I didn't do all that much anyway." I responded quietly. I did not talk all that much since Aunt May died of a heart attack and I ended up on the streets. I was put into an orphanage since I was 17 but I ran away because someone was always reminding me of what happened. I knew that Aunt May's death is not one that could have been avoided but I still felt guilt. It seems that anyone I get close to is bound to die. That is the other reason I left, I could have caused another person to die.

"At least let me treat you to a meal." She tried, trying to repay me in some way. Seeing at how turning her down would make her hurt, I gave in and nodded. "Great! Let me just go get my purse from the back room and lock the door now that you've helped me repair it."

Once she was done locking up, she grabbed my arm with a lot more strength than I thought that a lady her age would have. Dragging me along, she took us to a restaurant that was right next to the place I was avoiding like plague: Stark Tower. Although I would love to meet the Avengers, I am scared that they will somehow find out about my powers and that would lead to a series of events that would end up with me getting close to them. Like I said before anyone close to me dies, and I will not be able to deal with the guilt if I am the reason that one of the Avengers die. I have enough guilt to last me a lifetime, I cannot stand anymore.

"Can we possibly go somewhere else?" I asked when she stops in front of it.

"Nonsense, this is the best place to go in this city, besides we might get to see the Avengers come out of their tower." She responds, shooting down my suggestion immediately.

It was then that I knew that I was doomed, because of the fact that I was me. With my luck the Avengers would walk right into the restaurant while I was in it. As we walked inside, I saw a sight that was worse than what I predicted: the Avengers were already there (excluding the Hulk and Thor). Yep, I am doomed.


	2. Chapter 2

As I walked behind the waiter and the nice old lady, my palms were sweating. There were so many 'what ifs' going through my head that I could not even begin to count them all. What if they figure out who I am? What if they try to get to know me? What if they become suspicious of me? Those were just a few of the ones going through my head.

When we walked past the table the Avengers sat at I tried to ignore them as to not bring attention to myself. I realized a moment later that since I was the only one not paying attention to them, I stuck out more. Inwardly cringing, I continued to ignore them as paying any attention to them now would look weird.

Sitting down at our table, I dug my nose into the menu that the waiter had provided for us. I peeked over it for a second just to see if the Avengers were looking at me. I almost let out a sigh of relief when I found that they were much more interested in their own food and each other than anyone else in the restaurant. Now a little more relaxed, I actually take the time to read the menu over. It was like any other menu and after little thought I decided to order the least expensive thing on it. Despite the hunger I felt, I did not want to cost the nice old lady that much money. I may be living off the streets for three months, but I have managed to avoid stealing so far. I would rather starve than have to resort to that.

"What would you like to drink?" The waiter's question brought me out of my thoughts.

"I'll have an iced tea and he would like a huge strawberry smoothie," nice lady ordered before I could answer that I wanted water. "You do like strawberries, right dear?"

"Yes, but you don't-" I started to protest.

"Nonsense, you're way too skinny and helped me without expecting anything in return." She interrupted my protest in an almost motherly tone. It made my heart ache at the thought of my own mother and Aunt May. "Now you're going to sit there quietly while I return the favor and help you in return."

Realizing that I was in no way going to change her mind, I obeyed her. I was not sulking, I was resigning to my fate that I had no control over at the moment. The nice old lady just giggled at my expression and went back to looking over the menu. I was reconsidering the nice part of 'nice old lady'. That reminds me: I do not even know her name.

"Ummm... Mrs.?" I say quietly, blushing over the fact that I followed someone into a restaurant whose name I did not know. Part of me argued that she did not make my spidy-sense go off, so I knew it was okay to follow her. Even though that was true, all of the lessons I learned growing up told me that I should not have followed this lady.

"Oh, how rude of me," She seemed to realize that we did not know each other's names as well. "I am Margret Beader, but everyone calls me Gran. I expect you to call me it as well..."

"Peter," I answer the probing for my name.

"Peter's a nice name. It reminds me of a friend who had a nephew named that, who she took in after his parents died in a car crash." She said, her voice fond. "It's such a shame that she died from a heart attack not too long ago."

"You knew Aunt May?" I asked before I was able to stop myself.

She was about to answer when there was a huge commotion coming from where the Avengers were. I was surprised, as talking with Gran, I had totally forgotten about them. Apparently they were leaving and everyone chose that time to go ask for photographs and signatures. Distracted, I took a moment to look at them.

Tony Stark aka Ironman was the one that stuck out the most. He was in what looked to be a million dollar suit and was smiling his signature smirk as he willingly signed signatures and posed for pictures. A pair of expensive sunglasses were resting on top of his perfectly styled hair.

Black Widow stood out the second most as she was the only girl of the group. She did not look like she enjoyed the attention as much as Tony did. In fact she gave off the feeling that she would rather not be the center of attention, albeit shared among the rest of the Avengers. Dressed in casual clothes, that did not suit her in my opinion, she gave the impression she was irritated. She reluctantly allowed her picture to be taken, with some prompting from Tony, and signed only a couple of things.

Next was Captain America who was obviously not used to the attention. He had a lost look on his face as he got asked many questions. He did sign things despite his confusion, and allowed people to take photos with him.

Last but not least there was Hawkeye. He was okay with the signing and he made it look like he was okay with the pictures. I would think that he was if it weren't for the stiffening of his shoulders every time there was a flash. I saw as each time he got a little overwhelmed with the flashes that he tended to drift towards Black Widow for some sort of assurance or support. Though some of those times I think he gave assurance to her when she got a little too tense to be safe.

Shaking my head, I bring my attention to Gran as she likes to be called. I glance at her and relize that she was probably around the age Aunt May would be if she was still alive. The thought sent a jolt of pain through me. I try to hold back tears at the thought. It is still hard for me to think about her death. She was the only loved one I had left and I tried my best to protect her. But no one can protect someone from their own body.

"Aren't they amazing?" Gran asked me, bringing me out of my sorrow. "We are so lucky that they were there since Spider-man stopped helping out the city. It's such a shame, he made such a difference. Anyway, I'm not sure that I would still be alive if they weren't there to save me."

That statement had me, for the first time in a while, feel like that maybe that Spider-man was a good thing. If someone who possibly knew Aunt May thought that Spider-man was someone who made a difference, it might not be so bad being Spider-man. I quickly dismissed the thought, being Spider-man has caused more bad than good. Instead, I focused on something else.

"So you know Aunt May?"

 


	3. Chapter 3

"Oh, yes I was friends with her before she passed. We'd been best friends since high school. So you're the nephew that she kept on telling me about. She was so disappointed when she found she was unable to have any kids of her own. She and Ben were looking into adopting but most of the kids had problems that they just couldn't afford to have. They had enough to raise a kid comfortably, but not one with special needs. They would've loved one of those kids anyways, just had no money to take care of the special needs." She pauses to look at me. "Then you came along. Your parents and May were very close. When they died the only thing that helped her deal with the sadness was you. Even though you reminded her of your parents, you brought her indescribable joy. The joy that can only be understood by a loving parent. She viewed you as her own son Peter. You were the only thing that kept her together after Ben's death. I want to thank you for that as I wasn't able to do so."

By this time I had tears streaming down my face. I had thought until now that I had run out of tears to cry. I made no effort to remove them; knowing they would quickly be replaced. I did not care at this point if half the restaurant was staring at me. Between the happiness of helping Aunt May with the thought that she thought of me as her own son to the feeling of some of the guilt I carried disappear. I could not stop crying.

Gran said nothing but scooted her chair close to mine and held me in her arms. By the time I was able to get my crying under control, the waiter had come to bring us our food. Gran must have ordered while I was crying. Looking at the food, I realized that she had ordered one of my favorite meals: lasagna. She soon noticed where I was looking.

"May used to always tell me how happy you were when she made lasagna. She told me how your face would just light up and you always had some sauce left on your face afterwards." She explained. "I always wondered if your face was anything like hers when she was talking about you."

I almost burst out crying again. Instead, picked up the fork and started eating, occasionally sipping the large strawberry smoothie that must have also arrived when I was crying. As I was eating, I realized something.

"This is one of the most expensive things on the menu!" I exclaimed.

"Think of it as a thanks for cheering up May when I wasn't able to. Also as I said with the smoothie, you're all skin and bones." She assured firmly. "It would be an insult to my friendship with May if I didn't make sure you're fed and taken care of."

Why must she make me feel like a child every time we have a disagreement like this? Just holding a conversation with her is making me rethink a lot of things. For a second I even thought about being Spider-man again.

"Why can I not win an argument against you?" I asked in a defeated tone.

"Because I'm a stubborn old hag who will not take no for an answer," she replied in a blunt tone. "Finish up your meal. Once you're done I don't want to see anything left on that plate. If you feel so bad about me spending money on you, at least make sure that my money does not go to waste."

I was once again not sulking. I was just stabbing my meal with more force than was necessary.

Once we were finished lunch, Gran paid for the bill. I started to walk towards one of my safe houses that I stay at as soon as we walked out of the door of the restaurant.

"Where do you think you're going?" Gran called out as she put a hand on my shoulder.

"To one of my safe houses?" To my embarrassment it came out as more of a question rather than a statement.

"What about making sure you were taken care of did you not understand?" I turn around to face her.

"You might be a friend of my Aunt May but you haven't totally proved that yet. Most importantly I have only met you today and I don't make a habit of going to someone's home when I barely know them." I say. Even though I knew it was safe to be around her because of my spidy-sense, I was not going to cause another death; especially since Gran was Aunt May's friend. Also she may be safe to be around now, but that may not be true when she is in her home. "I live on the streets since the orphanage kept reminding me of what I lost. I've been on the streets for almost three months now. I know how to take care of myself."

"Then can you at least stop by every day and have lunch with me?"

Thinking that it couldn't do that much harm and the fact that she would not leave me alone till I at least agreed to that, I nodded. At least a little satisfied, Gran let go of her grip on me. Thankful she let me go, I gave her a quick, small smile before getting myself lost in the crowd of people.

As soon as I felt far enough away from her I mentally mapped out the way to the closest safe house out of the four that I had. Most of my safe houses were rundown buildings that had been abandoned long ago, but they still provided me with some shelter. It was hard to think of the route with the closest one, being the newest, and all the realizations from my conversation with Gran going through my head. I decided since I could not think clearly I should head to my main and oldest hideout. It was not that much farther away and had far more supplies than the other one. It was on the outskirts of town, in a region that not many populated because of the distance and the poor housing. I had found an empty apartment building and took residence in the most secluded apartment. It was one of the most run down but I fixed it up a little using parts I found around and from the other apartments. It took around a month to get it livable, but it was well worth the work. The apartment now protected me from cold weather and kept out any precipitation.

Once I got there I made sure no one was looking before stealthily making my way to my apartment that I do not really own. I have been cautious because of my young appearance social services find me out very easily.

The apartment was a one bedroom apartment that contained a very little amount of things. There was a mattress in the back left corner which was falling apart. I had salvaged it from one of the neighboring apartments. It was dirty and way past worn out but it was better than sleeping on the floor. There was a pillow that was in mid-condition due to the fact that I took it with me from my home. It too was covered in dirt along with the flimsy blanket that accompanied it. In the back right corner there was a gas stove that I was a tiny stove that I had not bothered to move. It did not work due to there being no electricity, but I just couldn't find the motivation to move it. In the front right corner was a bag that held all of my personal possessions in it. It contained pictures of each of the loved ones that I had lost, the Spider-man suit (I was not dumb enough to just throw it in a dumpster where some idiot could find it and get himself killed trying to be Spider-man, that and I could not seem to let go of it no matter how hard I tried), a couple mementos that reminded me of those who I lost, a couple spare sets of clothes, and whatever measly food scraps I could find. Lastly, there was only one very small window right across from the door.

Sighing, I sat down onto the bed. Why can't I have a normal life like everyone else? It is not that much to ask for, but apparently my luck seems to make it impossible. Well that and the superpowers I now have.

I should really get out of New York. Today I came way too close to meeting the Avengers. I have thought about leaving before but could not do so because I am emotionally attached to this place. But now that I got so close to the Avengers I am really considering leaving for the Avenger's safety. I know that if I stay that my luck will make me meet them, it is just a matter of when. But... I promised Gran I would meet her for lunch every day. The last time I broke a promise, I got Gwen killed.

Brushing away the stray tears the escaped, I resolved to stay and fulfill that promise. I will just have to postpone meeting the Avengers as long as I can. When I do meet them I need to make sure that they do not take an interest in me and make sure there is no reason for us to meet again.

With that sorted, I thought about what I learned from Gran. It had been nagging at me since I heard it. I did not know that I was such a significant part of Aunt May's life. To hear that I was the only one who helped her through rough times was me, even when her friend from high school couldn't help, was surprising. The fact that she thought of me as her own son, made me feel happy in some odd way; happy that I made such a positive impact on her life. I had always wondered why Aunt May and Uncle Ben never had kids of their own, so that part did not shock me as much as I thought it would.

I continued to think through all the things that happened today and what was revealed today till it was dark out. As soon as I saw it was night out, I tried to go to sleep as I was exhausted from the day's events. So with a bit of adjusting, I fell into a hopefully nightmare-free night.

 


	4. Chapter 4

*Nightmare*

_I was running as fast as I possibly could, trying to save every person from falling. Every single time, I was just about to save them when they fell towards their deaths. I was helpless to do anything but watch them fall. First it was Mom and Dad, then Uncle Ben, then Mr. Stacy, then Gwen, and finally Aunt May. Each one looked into my eyes as they fell. Every one said the same haunting words:_

_'It's all your fault!'_

*End*

Gasping, I jolted awake. Sweat was rolling down my face barely distinguishable from the tears that were making their way down from my eyes. Once I had got my breathing under control I sat up and ran my hand through my sweaty hair. Even after three months of Aunt May's death, I still had a nightmare like that every single time I closed my eyes. I tried not sleeping for a while, but that only made the nightmares longer and more intense. I discovered the best thing to do was try to sleep every night for as long as possible. The problem was that when I woke up I was not able to go back to sleep.

I stood up, throwing off the thin blanket. Searching through my bag, I produced a breakfast bar that was half eaten. This is what I had been eating for the past couple days. It was not like I was very hungry after Aunt May's death. I had found a five dollar bill on the ground a week ago and bought two boxes of the cheapest breakfast bars I could find. No one really questioned my attire because the invasion, which was a week before that, made many homeless.

Looking out the window, I debate making the semi-long trip back to the main part of the city. I decided to go to my newest hideout given the fact that the sun was just starting to make an appearance. The reason I was able to make a building so close to the city a safe house was because of the alien invasion. Many people moved due to losing a loved one (even with the Avengers helping there was still quite a few), were too scared to stay, or their home was destroyed and they sought shelter elsewhere.

Using the darkness as a cover, I snuck out of the apartment. I was not going to risk getting caught by a social worker, you can never be too careful. It was at this time when I had not been on the streets too long and got caught by one of the social service agents. I, of course, escaped but it was a lot more trouble than I would have liked. So from then on I have been avoiding anyone who might be one and being extra cautious in order to not be seen in situations where it is clear that I am homeless. My clothes and lack of cleanliness might make one think about it. But, like I said before, a lot of people were dressed like me because they are too poor due to the alien invasion. No matter how much Stark donates to rebuilding the city, it doesn't help people whose work place got destroyed and now do not get payed while it is being rebuilt. There is also the people who lost the family that brought home paychecks.

It was a relatively quiet walk to the hideout. As I walked along, I took in the details of my surroundings. Most of the buildings were under construction or in the process of cleaning up. There were a couple lucky buildings that either were first to get rebuilt or mostly spared from getting damaged. Those were very few though.

I faintly smiled as I passed a poster that announced that the Stark Science Exposition was still going to happen today, even with the building still under construction. This time last year I would have loved to go to it. I still did want to go to a certain degree, but I do not have the money and it is not worth the risk of bumping into one of the Avengers.

Lost in my thoughts, I did not remember that the path I usually take went past Gran's flower store. Since I did not realize this, I made no move to take a different path.

"I knew coming in this early would pay off one day." I heard Gran's voice say. I kept walking, acting like I didn't know her or hear her. Unfortunately, it seemed that Gran had other plans.

"Why do you think you're going to able to walk past me when I obviously see you?" She asks as she drags me off the sidewalk. I didn't resist as I was visibly unhealthily skinny and it would cause suspicion if I had the strength to get out her grip. That, and I had resolved to not use any of my powers which included my extra strength. Even if I had not made that resolve I would have not been able use my strength against someone who might have been friends with Aunt May.

"We're going to get to know each other better." She told me as an explanation while she dragged me into a back room of her shop. "Since you pointed out that we barely know each other we're going to get to know each other. First we're going to through some of my picture albums and then we're going to answers each other's questions. We'll take turns asking questions and the person has to answer the question honestly." I was hesitant to go through with this plan. She could ask anything she wanted, but I could learn more about Aunt May. My hesitation must have shown on my face because she spoke again to reassure me.

"If there's any questions that you don't want to answer then just say so or shake your head."

I reluctantly nodded my head and she gave me a smile. She then led to me to a small couch in what looked like to be a staff room. Making sure I was comfortable, she went to go get what I assumed was the picture books. For the next hour we went over all the pictures that my Aunt May was in. By the end I was convinced that Gran new Aunt May and learned more about Aunt May than I have my entire stay with her and Uncle Ben.

We were asking questions for around an hour when Gran asked a question that surprised me for it was a very personal question.

"I'm going to be blunt. Are you suicidal? Because I know that most people in your situation would be. I don't get the feeling you are but I want to make sure. If you don't want to talk about it I won't make any assumptions." I really wanted to shake my head that I did want to answer but I felt that would be a type of admission. I could not bring myself to not answer that question.

"I've thought about self-harm and suicide many times. But, each time I think about how that would be an insult to the memory of those who passed away and..." I have failed them enough. The whole time I was speaking in a shaky voice and looking at my lap.

"Not many people think like that."

"I'm not most people." She had no idea just how true that statement was. She waited a couple minutes before speaking cheerfully.

"To change the subject to something happier, I remember May talking about how much you loved science. It just so happens that I've a ticket to that Stark Expo that I've no use for. Meaning you're going to it. I won them in some contest, so you can't protest that it's my money and how I shouldn't waste it on you. I was aiming for third place because I wanted the rare plant seeds but got first instead."

I was torn. I could go to the thing I have wanted to go to ever since I heard about it. But if I go to it I risk running into one of the Avengers. Though, now that I think about it the possibility of meeting one is low as only Tony Stark would be around the Expo. Also, if I said I could not go I would have to give a reason why. I cannot just say 'because I am avoiding the Avengers.' That would bring up more things I would need to explain and I am not sure I am up to it.

"I'll go, but that is the last thing you're giving to me. This is a huge thing to just give away. You could've sold it someone and gotten a good amount of money."

"This is the last thing I am getting you today. And you will accept the things I give you because I'll be wasting my money if you don't accept and make use of what I give you."

"But-"

"No buts, I will be getting more things. It's my money and I can decide what to do with it. Besides I am pretty well off. This shop is more like a hobby or something to waste time than an actual business."

"You're the most stubborn old lady I've ever met and possibly the most manipulative."

"I'll take that as a compliment." She says proudly. "Alright! Now that we're done talking, it's time to get some food in you before I send you off to the expo." She searches through the bag that was sitting next to the couch that we were sitting on. Her face seems to brighten when she finds whatever it is that she is looking for. "Here you go, I expect that you eat all of it." She pops the top off of the Tupperware she had produced, revealing bacon, some eggs, and a piece of toast.

Sighing, I grabbed the square holder. I had been around her enough to know that she would win if I started to argue. It seemed as though I never could win an argument with her, no matter how hard I tried. As I was eating, I had to admit that Gran was at least a really good cook. Even though I was basically forcing the food down, I enjoyed the meal. I was never that hungry anymore.

"Now to get you to the Expo." Gran said as soon as I finished. Surprised, I looked at the sole clock in the room to see that it was close to 11:30. The Expo started at 12. Gran grabbed my hand and proceeded to drag me down the same path that we had yesterday. Instead of stopping at the restaurant, we went to the giant monstrosity that was now called the Avengers tower. By the time we got there, there was a long line that went down the street. It was getting shorter as it looked like people were allowed to get in a little early.

"I have imposed on you enough today. So for now promise me you'll relax a bit and enjoy yourself and I'll hopefully see you soon." I nodded, promising that I would try my best to have fun and relax a bit. I had not done so since I lost Aunt May. Inside I was a little afraid that I had forgotten how to and that I would waste grains ticket because of that.

Gran surprised me by giving me a quick hug before leaving as soon as I got to the front of the line. The only reason I think she waited around for so long was to make sure that I actually went in and did not give away the ticket, which I had considered while we were waiting.

Once inside, I was amazed by all the inventions that were on display. Awestruck, I totally forgot about everything going on in my life and geeked out. I was so lost in looking at the inventions that I did not see a man until my Spidy-sense alerted me. I ignored it as it was part of me that got people killed and let myself bump into the man.

"Sorry, I was admiring one of the most amazing things I've seen ever and I didn't see you there." I say to the rugged man I bumped into.

"It's okay I wasn't paying attention either." he responded back. "It's nice to see someone so young interested in science."

"Thank you, I've always been a bit of a science nerd."

"Same here, let me properly introduce myself. Hello, I'm Bruce Banner."

"Bruce Banner? I'm a big fan of your work, I even wrote a paper in high school about it. Do you have anything in here of yours here? I'd love to see any of your work." I paused as I realized that I was rambling. I felt a blush appear on my cheeks. "Sorry, my name's Peter, Peter Parker."

"It's fine we all have those moments. You understood my work? How old are you?"

"I'm 17, Dr. Banner."

"Just call me Bruce Peter, Dr. Banner's too formal for me."

"Bruce I'm fine with you taking in strays but I'd like it if you warned me first." A new voice broke into our conversation. Coming up to us was none other than Tony Stark.

 


	5. Chapter 5

"First of all he is not a 'stray'. Second, I have not agreed to stay here so I would not need to tell you if I was picking up a 'stray'." Bruce explained to Tony-Freaking-Stark in what sounded like an exasperated tone. I got that scientists sometimes work together, but why would Bruce live with Tony Stark? Why does Tony Stark want Bruce to live with him? Are they dating? I did not think about that much as I was still marveling over the fact that I got to meet my top two favorite scientists in one day. For that reason my brain did not register the fact that Tony Stark was an Avenger.

"That does not matter. What does matter is that you will be staying here soon and any strays you pick up will have to be approved by me." Mr. Stark said to Bruce. He then turned to me. "Well he has got the nerd look down, along with your choice in clothing. I will approve him for now, but you both have got to start to wear better clothes. Anyway, why don't we take your stray on a private tour of the labs?"

"His name is Peter, he is not my stray, and we just met him." Banner responded, sounding like he was explaining something to a small child.

"Yeah but you are making friends with him. You never make friends, so he must be special. Therefore, he is going to get a private tour of my private lab. I have already done all the speaking Pepper needs me to do so we do not need to worry about that." Mr. Stark concluded as he grabbed Bruce's right arm and my left one. What was with people lately and dragging me around places? Then the situation dawned on me. Wait a minute, I am getting dragged by Tony Stark, an Avenger.

"I-It is really okay Mr. Stark, I am fine with just observing the Expo like everyone else. There is still so many interesting things I have not seen yet." I said as I tried to dig my heels into the ground with just a little of my strength. If I went with him there was a chance I could meet with more of the avengers, and one was bad enough already.

"Nonsense, there is much more complicated and cool stuff that make the things here look lame in comparison in my private lab. I keep all the cool stuff to myself and the select few I allow to see them. You should feel very honored right now. Also call me Tony, Mr. Stark was my father." Tony said as he continued to tug me along despite my efforts to stop him.

"It is useless to try to reason him when he is determined, so it is better just to go along with him." Bruce commented from the other side of Tony.

"Aww, my little Brucie is learning. Have you finally given into the fact that you are going to live here? I already have a floor set up for you and you can join me in the lab so we can be science buddies." Stark exclaimed excitedly. Losing the control on my tongue for a minute, I blurted out a question to Bruce.

"Does he always act like a five year old?"

Tony spluttered, stopping to stare at me for a couple seconds. Bruce chose this time to respond.

"Nope, most of the time he acts as a four year old." He informed me dryly.

"Hey you can't gang up on me!" Tony whined.

"I am only stating the truth." Bruce said bluntly.

"I am not that bad!" Tony protested weakly.

"I have known you for not even ten minutes yet and even I can say that you really are that bad." I inserted into the conversation.

"Fine, be that way." Tony grumbled, pouting. He drags us to the elevator after weaving us through the crowd (which was very easy because most people parted for Tony). "Jarvis take us up to my private lab."

"Yes sir," a voice responded, making me jolt a little.

"Is that an AI?" I ask

"Yes it is," Tony answered me offhandedly.

When the elevator stopped moving the shiny metal doors opened. The lab that was revealed blew my mind. I could not get it to work no matter how hard I tried. I was barely aware of the fact that Tony dragged us off the elevator and my feet moving in order to catch up with my arm. Tony was right, the things down at the Expo were nothing compared to the things up here in this lab. Before I knew it I was asking questions about everything in the lab and I could not stop the flow of questions coming from my mouth. Tony seemed impressed about the complexity of my questions and answered most of them. He could not answer some of it because he apparently did not tell any random person about such secret things. This fact I found a little weird because he was showing the things to me in the first place. But I guess that if you only look at something that you do not know what it is or does, looking at it really does not give that much away. I did not dwell too much on it as there were so many other interesting things to ask about.

Before I knew it, I had spent the rest of the evening asking Tony and Brice questions about the things I saw in the lab. When I saw the time I berated myself as I saw how late it was. Tony was an Avenger. The longer I spend around him, the more likely that he will die like everyone else I get close to.

"I need to go now, it is getting late." I announced after looking away from the very accurate and precise clock (some experiments could explode if you do not time things perfectly).

"But it is not even dark out!" Tony protested. "And you cannot just leave after making me interested in you." Once the words came out of his mouth I had an inner panic attack. From what I learned of Tony so far is that once he is interested in something, he does not stop until his curiosity is satisfied. In short terms: He will make sure that I spend more time with him.

"Tony, some people have lives that they cannot avoid unlike you." Bruce scolded Tony, oblivious to my inner turmoil.

"I am just going to go now." I stated awkwardly as I started walking towards the elevator doors.

"So Bruce, you finally gave up and are moving into your floor?" I heard Tony ask Bruce as I got on.

"Yes," Bruce's response came out resigned as the door closed to the elevator.

"Jarvis, will you please take me to level one?" I directed my question to the ceiling.

"Yes, and I thank you on being much more polite than my creator."

"Did you just insult your creator?"

"No, I merely stated a fact that is undoubtedly true."

I had nothing to say after that and waited till the doors on the elevator opened.

As I got off, there were little people around as the Expo was going to close in an hour. I made my way to the exit, not paying any more attention to the exhibits. I needed to get to one of my safe houses. It is a commonly known fact on the streets that it is dangerous to go out at night. It is when all of the illegal things happen and villains come out. The Avengers may have saved the world but they do not deal with petty crimes and the other things that happen on the street. I understand that they are probably too busy saving the world from some threat, but sometimes I feel like they should do something every once in a while. They don't have to do much, just show up on the streets stopping crime enough to deter criminals. Not many criminals would try to do anything if they think that the Avengers will come to stop them. Since the invasion everyone knows how strong they are criminals will take them seriously except for the cocky and/or stupid. They did not take Spider-man seriously because they didn't think I was that strong. Little did they know that I did not use much of my strength on average criminals?

I suddenly noticed that I had been walking on autopilot for a while. I scanned my surroundings to see that I was almost to my main shelter. Somehow I had gone across sidewalks and around corners without noticing or getting run over. I shrugged it off as it has happened more often than I would like to admit. I had concluded a while ago that it was due to a combination of my Spidy-sense and my subconscious memory. If it is not that then I do not have a clue how it happens.

As I finished the walk to my main safe house, I noted that I needed to find a way to take a shower soon. There was only so long that my superhuman sense of smell could take my own stench. I figured out (with smelly trials and errors) that I needed to clean off at most weekly, but the more often, the better. This was a problem as there are very little options of where to bathe when you are homeless. If I was unlucky I would go two weeks without showering. It was all about luck. At least, before the invasion it was like that. Now there are lots of abandoned houses who have running water for at least another two weeks. It is a short amount of time but I am enjoying it while I have it. I will have to wait till tomorrow. I was planning to do it today but then the whole meeting with Gran and the Stark Expo happened. I guess I will have to deal with smelling horrible for another night.

Once I got to my main safe house I took off my shoes and laid down on my mattress. Putting my hand over my closed eyes, I thought about my predicament. How can I get Tony to not be interested in me? I could not think of anything because of how I acted today. If I suddenly acted dumb it would be suspicious. Also Gran's store was close to Avenger's tower and she will most likely drag me to the restaurant next to the tower again. There is a high chance of bumping into them because I promised to go to lunch with Gran.

The only solution that I could think of was to wait and hope that Tony will lose interest in me. After all what kind of person because really interested in a teenager that they met once. With all the things Tony has to do it should not be long before he loses interest in me. I know it will not be that short because of his personality and resources but I could be sneaky when I wanted to be. I just have to avoid all security cameras and anywhere that he might look for me.

This means I have to break the promise with Gran (another promise I couldn't keep). A wave of guilt washes over me but I push it back. It was more important to make sure that I do not kill the Avengers and it was only temporary. If the Avengers die and another global crisis like the alien invasion happens, there will nobody there to stop it. I do not want to be the reason for the end of the world.

With that decision made, I let my mind wander back to the day. I learned so much in one day. I now knew things about Aunt May and Uncle Ben that I would have never guessed before. At the expo I learned so much about the things that Tony was working on. Even though I was not able to understand some of what Tony explained to, what I did understand was amazing. I could never had learned all that information in school. A very advanced college might teach some of it, but it would cost more money than I can imagine. I not only got to know all these things before college, but for free.

I then thought about how I felt at the Expo. My time at there was amazing. I have not been that excited and cheerful since before Gwen's death. Science is just something that always gets me excited and happy. Whenever I am around amazing things like that I get lost in awe. It is like how some people escape life through books, but instead I escape life with science. It allows me to forget everything just for a little while and let the curious child-like side of me control my actions.

I have missed science a lot since being on the streets. You cannot be around science that much when you are homeless. For one you would have to find the time to do so and then find a place that lets anyone in and is advanced enough to interest me. I yearned for it while on the streets, but I could not act on it. There was no way I could fulfill that want, until now. But now I have become the interest of one of the Avengers. I cannot let my selfish wants overcome me. After all that is what got Gwen killed.


	6. Chapter 6

When I woke up to sunlight around six in the morning I was surprised, as my nightmares usually woke me up at random times in the night. I know I had nightmares last night but they were not as bad as the one from yesterday. I still had some sweat, but I was not drenched in it like I usually. Which reminds me that I am in serious need of bathing.

But, I need to talk to Gran about how I will not be able to see her for a while. I know I am likely to get into a situation with the Avengers if I go to her. It is just that while I may have resolved to break my promise with her I have to at least tell her I am doing. Just imagining her expression if I just do not show up adds to the giant pile of guilt inside me (there also may be a small part of that is afraid of what she would do once I did show up). Part of me reasoned that since Gran was so independent, she would be fine if I did so. I tried my best to convince myself of that fact. But the other, more emotional side of me said that I should at least tell her as I should not completely disappoint another person in my life. My emotional side won.

I decided to put off bathing until after I talked with Gran. The sooner I talk with her, the less likely that I will bump into an Avenger. Usually none but Captain America leave the tower this early as he runs each morning. Tony is publicly known not to turn up to any meetings till after at least nine. There is still a chance of him skipping it, but he is less likely to skip the ones after nine. The Hulk has only been seen at world crisis situations. Then you have Hawkeye and Black Widow who are rarely, if ever, seen. They are trained spies who can leave without anyone noticing when they do not want to be seen. Lastly, Thor has not been seen since the alien invasion. So unless there is some sort of urgent world crisis, I would have a very low chance of bumping into one of the Avengers. But with my luck there might be an urgent world crisis or I will bump into one of them because it was so early.

Just wanting to get this done as quickly as possible, I got ready to go. There was not much for me to do. I mainly just put my shoes on and tried to make myself look at least a tiny bit less like the homeless person I am using an old broken mirror. I gave up pretty quickly as I knew it was useless and I was just trying to waste some time. Just because I needed to tell Gran very quickly, does not mean I was looking forward to it. There were so many ways that she could react and not all of them were good. I trusted her to an extent, but I had only known her for two days. Because of that I could think of some really bad reactions that she could possibly have.

As I was walking towards Gran's store, I thought about Tony and Bruce. Tony was a character to say the least. He was similar to what the media portrayed him to be, there were some differences. He was cocky, but he definitely had the intelligence to back that part of it up. He is not heartless as the news would like to believe though. How else do you explain the fact that he took some time to show a homeless teenager his private lab just because his friend had a slight interest in him? Also, Tony would not be so insistent to get Bruce to live in the tower if Tony did not care at all for Bruce. I was not saying that they are in a relationship. I do not know which gender they prefer, but they were positively not with each other. First, Bruce was way too jumpy and cautious around Tony, even if I was part of the reason he was cautious. Second, if they were in a relationship there would be no need for Tony to convince Bruce to stay.

Bruce himself was a curious character himself. While Tony answered all my questions, Bruce helped me understand those answers. Tony may have answered my questions but he did not always use terms that I knew. By the end of my visit if I did not understand something Tony said, I would simply look at Bruce.

I looked over these past few days, I found that I had socialized more in the past two days than I have my entire time on the streets. This fact was not something that I was proud about. I have been trying my best to avoid those types of situations. They lead to people getting close to me. This thought lead to an internal battle. Even if I do not see Gran for a little while, I still would see her every day after that. There is no way that I would not become close to Gran when that happens. But I promised to have lunch with her every day. Should I follow through with that promise or not. It was a battle between wanting to protect Gran from my curse and breaking a promise, when last time I did that caused the curse to take hold of someone.

Shaking my head, I decided that I had the whole time I was trying to avoid the Avengers to decide. I would tell Gran I could not come for a little while for private reasons and decide if I should not see her permanently.

I walked a little bit more before arriving at Gran's flower store. The smell of the flowers was overwhelming on my sensitive senses but I had built up a tolerance to overwhelming smells due to the places I had to be as spider-man and the fact that I had assigned seats next to a girl who wore way too much perfume in high school when I had my powers. I was only able to stand that class because my sense of smell had not improved too much by my powers, but enough that I had to get used to it.

I was waiting for a little while before Gran showed up with multiple shopping bags in her hands. This caused me to feel a little guilty as she probably got more things for me. I swallowed once before preparing to tell Gran about my future absence.

"Oh I am so happy you are here early, I thought I was going to have to wait till lunch till I could see you. Will you hold these for me while I unlock the store? Thank you, you are such a gentleman." Gran said before I could open my mouth. I swallowed and nodded my head at her question. She handed the bags to me and I staggered under the weight. I was only using a portion of my strength because it was part of my powers. Since my strength has depleted since I have been on the streets, it was very little for me. For a regular person it would be their strength if they were completely healthy. Making a show of struggling, I asked Gran a question.

"How are you able to hold these like they are nothing?" I can barely hold them up, let alone carry them a long distance."

"Well for one I am not all skin and bones like you are and I work out regularly." She replies. She opened the door and easily relieved me of the weight of the bags.

I followed her absently, still trying to process how strong she was. I was pretty sure that most people that worked out regularly at her age were not that strong.

"Most of this is just some soil for some of the plotted plants. There are some other random plant related items." She put some of the bags behind the cashier counter and was left with two bags.

"When is your store open because you spent half the day with me yesterday? Your store is already fixed due to my help."

"Oh, well I open later in the day. I come early to tend to the plants and do any other business that needs to be taken care of. There was never a lot of business in the beginning of the day. The only reason I even bother opening now is because there were deaths that happened even with the Avengers. There have been a lot of orders for funerals and flowers to put onto graves. It is really sad that so many people come in just for that reason. Though, I guess there would be a lot more if the Avengers had not stopped the invasion. Anyway, enough with all this depressing talk. Let's get to the reason why you are here. Yesterday you seemed to be too lost in thought to realize that you were passing by my store. Today you look like you have deliberately stopped here. With how you have been not willing to let me get you many things or spend a lot of time with you, there must be a reason." I hated how perceptive Gran was. When we were talking yesterday I felt as though she saw through all of my half-truths and lies.

Shaking my head, I focused on what I wanted to say.

"I know that I promised I would come to see you every day for lunch but something came up. I will have to postpone the starting of the promise because I have some personal things I have to deal with for a little while. I will keep my promise after I sort out my situation."

Gran starred at me for a while, probably thinking about what I had just told her. After a while her face softened and an almost evil glint entered her eyes.

"I will allow it on the condition that you spend the time between now and when I need to open my store shopping with me. You will not object to anything that I want to get you and try on anything I give you."

I felt like I was signing my death warrant when I nodded my head in answer. This is not one of the reactions that I had thought up, but I guess it was better than some of the things I came up with.

I jumped as Gran let out an almost girlish giggle and hurried around the store. It was not long before she started to drag me out the door. A bad feeling came over me as soon as she started to drag me along. It was not my Spidy-sense but rather a sense of dread. I had never gone shopping with a female before, but I could tell that this probably was not a good of a deal as I had originally thought.

"First we are going to get you three sets of new clothes, then we will get you a haircut. Your hair has gotten too long. After that we have to get you a new pair of sneakers along with some socks. Wait, before all that we need to get a good breakfast in you. You will not make it through the day if you do not have a full breakfast. Remember no objections to anything I give you." I closed my mouth as she abruptly switched directions. I had been about to protest that I did not need a haircut. Which was a total lie, as my hair was getting in the way of my line of sight lately. I was not going to protest about the rest because I expected that much and my current attire was falling apart at the seams. My shoes were not that bad. I may have only been on the streets for three months but a lot of things can happen on the streets. The reason they were not that bad was because I had got them two months before Aunt May died. Even though I knew Aunt May was having economic trouble, she put some money together to buy me some new shoes. When Uncle Ben died she had to pay all the bills by herself. There was some money given to Aunt May because of life insurance, but that only lasted for a little while. That is why I took pictures for the Daily Bugle. It was the only job I could do with my busy schedule.

"Peter," Gran calls out to me.

"What?" I ask automatically like most people my age do. But instead of annoyed it sounded generally confused.

"Are you okay? You have been staring into space for the whole walk towards this cafe. Speaking of which this is my favorite cafe. I go here every other day. I used to meet up with a nice man named Phil but he has not showed up recently. I really hope he was not one of the casualties of the invasion. He was a very nice person. Sorry, I am rambling. I blame it on my old age."

"I am okay. I just tend to space out and get lost in my thoughts a lot lately."

"I am just worried because if I was not there you might have gotten run over by a car. I do not want you to be critically injured or dead because you get so lost in your thoughts that you ignore danger."

"You do not have to worry I have not been injured yet and I do not like to admit how often it happens."

"What would you like?" The cashier's voice interrupted our conversation.

"I will have a small iced coffee and a blueberry muffin and he will have an orange juice with the breakfast burrito." Gran answers immediately. She did not even hesitate ordering one of the biggest things on the menus for me.

"Alright, you are order number 56, your food will be ready in a couple minutes." The cashier said in a cheerful voice that she must have mastered because of her job.

While we waited for the food, I reminded myself that I could not object to anything Gran got me. Even if there was no way I would be able to eat the whole burrito. After eating as much of the meal as I could, we left for the mall.

"First thing is we are getting you a haircut." Gran informed me as we entered.

The next couple hours made me think if I should have just taken the risk of meeting her every day. The haircutter declared my hair atrocious and proceeded in wash it till there was not one piece of gunk in my hair. I made a mental note to never to agree to go shopping with Gran ever again. At each store she pushed me into a changing room and shoved a mountain of clothes in my arms. By the third store I was already beginning to feel tired. We stopped only to get lunch and use the bathroom when needed. It was pure torture.

By the time Gran was finished I was exhausted. I now had two more pairs of shoes, five pants, three shorts, six shirts, a half dozen socks, and a backpack to carry it all. That was after I convinced her that I could not have too many things because I can only carry a little amount of things with me.

"Next we are going to go to my house. You seriously need to bathe and change into one of your new outfits. Once you are done changing we are going to burn what you are wearing now." Gran said in a voice that said there would be no arguing. It was not really needed as I would not have argued anyways. It saved me the trouble of trying to find a place with running water that did not have anyone around or cost any money. Besides it would be nice to use actual soap for once.

We were walking down the street to Gran's house when I saw Captain America. He was in casual clothes so not many people recognized him. He was helping some store owners put their shops back together.

When I first saw him I almost hid behind Gran. I resisted the urge in favor of ignoring him. It was successful until it was clear that the Captain was not able to do something on his own. I might have been looking at him in the corner of my eye. He was holding a support for the overhang. The problem was it fell over as soon as he let go of it. In order to get the overhang back up both supports needed to be standing. I sighed under my breath at what I was about to do.

"Gran, can you wait a minute? I am going to help that group put the overhang back up." I asked, motioning toward the group.

"Of course I can wait a little. You are such a sweet boy, you know that Peter. Aunt May would be very proud of you right now." Gran praised me with the gentle tone that I had never heard from her before. I was frozen for a second as I processed her words. I gave her a small nod in thanks and tried to hold back tears.

I went ahead to the place that Captain America was. He gave me a surprised but grateful look as I baked up the second support. The other people did not waste any time putting the overhang back up.

"Thanks for the help. It is nice to see someone your age helping out people you do not know." Captain greeted me after we were able to let go.

"You do it all the time." I pointed out before I could stop myself. Why was I able to relax around the Avengers like everything was okay?

"True, I guess you recognize me?" He said a little sheepishly.

"Well your face has only been posted everywhere." I said sarcastically. I was in shock of actually talking to Captain America, so my old personality was slipping through.

"Well many people only recognize me when I am Captain America. Not many are able to recognize me when I am Steve Rogers. Let me formally introduce myself. Hello, I am Steve Rogers, but you can call me Steve." He sticks out his right hand to me.

"Peter, Peter Parker," I responded dumbly. I absently shook his hand with a little more force than I would have liked.

"So Peter, will you stay and help out for a little while?"

"Ummm... I-" I started.

"He would be honored to assist you. He is such a selfless young man but he is not social. Helping you will help Peter socialize more." Gran cut in before I could make up an excuse as to why I could not help out.

It is official, I have the worst luck ever.


	7. Chapter 7

Even though I was not given a choice in helping out or not, I had to admit that it felt good to help out people again. That and Steve was very easy to talk with. I had to explain a couple of things as he has had little time to adapt to the current time. It made our conversations a little longer than normal but I found that I did not mind it at all. Forgetting my current situation again, I found myself opening up to him.

We worked till Gran stopped us to say that it was lunch. Food was provided by the people that we were helping. Both Steve and I tried to deny food, but Gran gave us a glare that even had Steve stopping his protests. It was both amazing and terrifying at the same time.

After we ate the huge lunches that we were forced to accept, we got back to work. Steve and I silently worked for the rest of the day, enjoying the cool breeze. By the time it had started to get dark, we had finished helping at least ten stores to get into a state where they could open for business. Despite the nonstop work Steve and I barely had any sweat on us due to a combination of the breeze and our powers. Not that Steve knew that I had any powers to speak of. Yet, he did not notice that I was not sweating like a normal person would or did not point it out. It was nice to be able to have a silence with another person rather than being by myself. Just because I resolved to not socialize with anyone did not mean that I did not want to have interactions with others. I was just protecting people from my curse.

Before I knew it, it was starting to get dark out. Gran had left mid-afternoon with the reason that she needed to open her store for a little while. I guessed that she was satisfied that I had not tried to get away and trusted that I would stay.

"Would you look at that?" Steve asked as he saw how the sun was setting. "Time goes by a lot faster with someone like you to work and talk with. Would you like to have dinner with me? You look skinnier than I was before the serum, and that is saying something."

"I-I am good. I do not want to intrude on you and the others." I stuttered, trying to not offend Steve. He was such a nice guy. He was offering to allow me to go into the Avengers Tower to have dinner with him.

"Nonsense! You have been a big help around here. I do not see a lot of people your age helping out like you just did. Especially with how skinny and ragged you look. Also Tony has been bugging me that I do not make any friends besides the rest of the gang. This will make him stop bugging me for a while about that specifically." Steve said that last part with the same resigned tone I heard from Bruce yesterday. Perhaps I underestimated Tony's stubbornness to get what he wants. He wore Captain Freaking America down! It is going to be harder than I had originally thought to avoid Tony.

"I need to be somewhere else." I lied unconvincingly. I did not like to lie, so I tried my hardest not to. Because of that fact when I do lie it is hard to make it seem believable. It was similar to how other teens referred to homework: they avoid it at any cost and do not give full effort when they do try to do their homework.

"Do I need to go find the scary lady who made us both accept our lunches and came with you? Because she told me were her store is if I needed her." Steve asked in a voice that reminded me of a teacher threatening to call a kid's parents. That threat was enough for me to nod my head and give him a slightly irritated look. He should not be so casual about getting Gran when she got him to accept the food with only a look. But the fact that if he did find Gran, she would make me go with him had me following behind him.

He was grinning victoriously as he led the way to the Avenger's tower. During the trip there he made sure that I was in his line of vision at all times. He did not trust me to try to sneak away in order to get out of this. Why did he have to pick up on my character so quickly?

In my head I decided that he was a hypocrite. He was not willing to accept things being done for him or things given to him. Yet, when it comes to him helping someone else out, they have to accept it. Giving it more thought, I realized that this statement also applied to me. That meant that I could not point it out to him as that would make me an even bigger hypocrite.

It was a fairly short walk to the Avengers tower. As we got there I felt multiple stares as I walked in with Captain America. The secretary only gave Steve a nod as we passed through to the elevator, too occupied with other tasks. I absently wondered why exactly she had so much work when she was supposed to direct people and make sure only authorized people entered the building.

"Jarvis can you bring us to the lounge?" Steve asked once we entered the elevator.

"Of course Mr. Rogers," came Jarvis's reply. Still fairly new to the whole Ai thing, I jumped a little at the voice coming out of thin air. This made Steve chuckle and I gave him a slight glare in return.

"I do not mean to be rude. That was actually my reaction for the first three days I was here." Steve informed me, stopping his slight laughter. At this time the elevator doors opened to reveal a huge living area and a gorgeous kitchen.

"Steve!" Came Tony's voice. "Like I told Bruce I do not mind you bringing in strays but I would appreciate if you asked me first. So what is-Peter! Looks like you and Bruce share the same taste in strays. Seeing as you both picked up the same one." Steve looked at Tony questioningly. "Bruce picked him up yesterday from the expo. Since Bruce does not socialize with others often I gave peter here a private tour of my lab." Tony explained.

"He was helping me with trying to help other people make repairs." Steve explained how he met me. "I brought him here to have dinner with us."

"He is more than welcome to stay for dinner." Tony exclaimed enthusiastically. "Actually, he should stay overnight. I have more than enough room and the bags under his eyes make it look like he has not slept for a while."

"Are you sure Tony?" Steve asked. "I have no problems with it. In fact I think it is a great idea. I just did not think that you would let a person you barely know stay in your tower with you."

"I let all the Avengers stay with me and I barely know you all." Tony pointed out.

"That is different." Steve defended. "People who fight together like we did form a sort of trust that cannot be broken that easily."

"You should know by now that I research everything before letting them get close to me." Tony said casually, making me stiffen. Seeing my reaction Tony turns toward me. "Don't worry I will not turn you in to child protection services only because I know that if I do you will not stay there very long."

"You live on the streets?" Steve asked me in a disbelieving tone. I looked down at my shoes, not willing to answer one of my childhood heroes. Internally, I was a little relieved about the fact that Tony had not found out about me being Spiderman.

"Yep, and that is why he looks like a toothpick." Tony answered for me. I looked up to give him a slight glare. I could not full out glare at one of my idols.

"We will have to change that." Steve informed Tony. I started to get the feeling that I would have a very hard time getting away from them as Tony nodded.

"Do I not get any say in this?" I asked them weakly despite knowing the most probable answer.

"No," both Tony and Steve confirm at the same time.

"Is there any way to get out of staying here and only having dinner?" I asked as a last pitiful attempt to get them to let me leave. I could get away if I really wanted to, but I had already shown some of my strength today and I did not want to cause them to be suspicious. Being able to escape two Avengers would automatically cause suspicion.

"No," Steve repeated as he steered me towards the gigantic kitchen. He pulled out a chair and sat me down in it. I allowed to it silently. I just had to wait till the right moment to escape from them."

"Popsicle keep an eye on Pete here." Tony told Steve. Despite the nickname Steve nodded and starting setting out the Chinese takeout on the counter while keeping an eye on me. "Jarvis, can you inform the rest of the avengers that the Chinese food arrived?"

"Why didn't you call them down before?" Steve asked curiously.

"Because dinner wouldn't be the same without you capsicle!" Tony stated brightly.

"Will you please stop calling me that?" Steve asked with a tone that implied he knew the answer but had to ask anyway.

"Now why would I throw away a perfectly good nickname?" Tony questioned back, sounding genuinely serious about it.

"Because the nickname is rude and annoying." Steve told him bluntly.

"But that is what nicknames are supposed to be like!" Tony argued.

I decided to use this time to make my escape as they were too occupied in their argument to notice me until I was gone. Unfortunately for me the dreaded Parker luck struck again as Bruce came from the elevator. I was heading for the stairs in order to avoid him. I was hoping that the argument between Steve and Tony was enough to distract him till I was gone.

"Peter! What are you doing here? And why are you heading towards the stairs?" Bruce's voice broke through the argument.

"Jarvis! Why did you not inform me that Peter was trying to leave us?" Tony asked, sounding like he had been betrayed.

"I was not aware that I needed to inform you that he was sir." I could have sworn that Jarvis was being sarcastic.

"Well I will inform you now." Tony sounded a little annoyed as he stated this. "I need you to inform me anytime that Peter here tries to escape." It was then that I actually paid attention to what Tony was saying.

"Hey! You cannot keep me against my will! That is kidnapping!" I protested loudly.

"Not once the adoption papers go through." Tony told me off-handedly.

"Tony! You cannot go around adopting other people's children!" Bruce scolded Tony.

"But he is an orphan and if you sign right here, I will not be adopting him because you will be." Tony revealed to us while pulling out a stack of papers out of nowhere.

"Tony you know why I cannot adopt him." Bruce stated sadly.

"Yeah but there is a low chance that big green will come out and if any of the rest of us adopt him he is going to be a target for our enemies. Not a lot of people know you are the hulk." Tony argued while revealing surprising facts that I probably was not supposed to hear. Why Tony wanted Bruce to live at the tower made a lot more sense now.

"You are not supposed to just blurt it out to people that you barely know!" Bruce started to look a little on the greenish side. Guessing what was about to take place, I decided to intervene.

"So Bruce is the Hulk?" I asked, making sure that my voice was loud enough for Bruce to hear. I believed I asked the wrong question as Bruce froze and his face had a depressing look on his face.

"Yes, I am the Hulk." Bruce sounded like he was in pain as he said the sentence.

"How is that even possible?" I let the question escape from my mouth because that was the only question I really needed the answer to. Bruce was a nice guy I cannot imagine him hurting someone out of his own free will. Besides the Hulk has not shown up often at all, showing that Bruce has some control over whether he is Bruce or the Hulk. Even if he did transform, the Hulk helped out the Avengers. Surely it is not a mindless beast like everyone thinks it is.

At my question Tony started laughing while Bruce and Steve just looked at me shocked. I was a little confused on their reactions. I mean the hulk got along with the Avengers for the most part right?

Bruce seemed to snap out of his shock after a while and began explaining to me the origins of the hulk. It was so much more interesting hearing about the Hulk than any of the inventions that I had been showed yesterday.

"So the Hulk comes out when your life is danger?" I inquired after his explanation.

"That is one way of putting it I guess." Bruce admitted.

"But you should have died. It is only because of the Hulk that you are able to help people. Without the Hulk I am not sure that the rest of the Avengers could have handled the invasion alone. No offense to the rest of them." I pointed out to him.

"No offense taken Peter. I am also unsure how the invasion would have gone had we not had Dr. Banner there." Steve assured me.

"But the Hulk killed people." Bruce protested. "And please just call me Bruce."

"From what I heard it was in order to protect you." Steve argued back.

"So now that the matter of big green is over, it is time for Bruce to adopt Peter." Tony changed the subject.

"But you do not need to adopt me." I supplied.

"Of course one of us has to adopt you. I would do it if the media weren't such vultures. People like you are very rare and do not deserve to be living on the streets." Tony assured me.

"I may not agree with Tony a lot but I agree with him on this. You are not going back to living on the streets. Someone as caring and nice as you should not have to fend for yourself on the streets." Steve agreed with Tony.

"It is really fine." I tried to convince them.

"You might as well give up kid. Not only do you have Tony (who does not take no for an answer) but you also have Steve who will not back down in what he believes in." Bruce advises me.

"But you can't adopt me." I persisted in a quiet voice. I avoided looking at the in favor of my shoes.

"Why not Peter?" Steve questioned me kindly.

"Because…." I broke off the sentence before I could reveal anything.

"Because what?" Bruce probed in a voice similar to the one Steve used. I looked around and realized that there was no way that I could escape from this situation. Meaning: I had to tell them. Gathering up what little courage I had left, I opened my mouth.

"I am cursed." This sentence was the only thing that I managed to say.

"Why do you think you are cursed?" Bruce asked with a concerned voice.

"Because everyone who has gotten close to me has died and I do not want to kill you guys as well." I admitted in the lowest voice I could possibly manage. I did not reveal that much because I was still getting to know them but I had to tell them something. Besides, I felt a little bit better after saying it out loud.

"You won't have to worry about us Peter we are not going to die because of you." Tony sounded sympathetic.

"You do not know that." I stated.

"No, but I know that we are not going to go out and get ourselves killed. We will not die that easily." Steve comforted me.

"But it has happened to every person that I have ever cared about." I tried to convince them of the fact. Why did they not get that it was dangerous being around me?

"Peter you are not cursed." Bruce said firmly but gently.

"Yes I am!" I cried, on the verge of tears.

"No you are not." Steve repeated. He came over to my side to support me as my knees decided to give out on me. I know that I just met them. I know that they are the Avengers. But the fact was that I still have not gotten over all of the deaths that I seemed to have caused. So that is why I was sitting in Captain America's arms crying my eyes out. Sob after sob escaped from my mouth. I could not have stopped if I wanted to. I was barely aware of the fact that I had fisted Steve's t-shirt, that there was a hand gently rubbing circles on my back, and that there was a reassuring hand going through my hair. All I focused on was the closeness and heat of another human being. I had not felt it since I gave my aunt may a hug before she died. But that only lasted a second.

I did not know how long I cried but I by the time I was done I could not keep my eyes open.

"Rest Peter," I heard a voice say. It was Steve I think. And that was when I fell asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

*Nightmare*

_I was running. I did not know what I was running form exactly, only that it was a very bad thing if it caught me. The faster I ran, the closer what I was running from sounded. I could feel breathing on my neck and determined that it was a person._

" _You can't run from yourself forever, Peter." My own voice with a cruel edge to it whispered._

" _Peter! Peter!"_

_Huh?_

*End*

I awakened and immediately sat upright. I was, once again, drenched in my own sweat. I tried to calm my breathing down to a normal rate as I registered weight on my back.

"It's okay Peter, it was just a dream." Bruce said softly. I leaned into his hand, revealing in the comfort of contact with another person.

I had calmed down when I realized that I was acting like a child who needed their parent to comfort them. Blushing, I pulled away from Steve. Well, I tried to. Bruce automatically held me in place when he felt that I was pulling away. He was stronger than he looked and I could not bring myself to use my strength on the person who was caring enough to adopt me.

"You shouldn't feel embarrassed about needing reassurance after nightmares. I'm pretty sure that all the Avengers excluding Thor have nightmares like yours. I'd actually be worried if you didn't have them after what you have been through. You aren't weak for seeking comfort. You're a lot stronger than I am. You've been through a lot and haven't tried to take your own life like I had." Bruce explained.

"You tried to kill yourself?" I asked, surprised.

"I've had a similar mind set to yours for a while. I'm worried about everyone because they're in danger when being around me due to the Hulk. I thought that the world would be better off without a monster like me. I'm still running away from part of the government who want to experiment on me. Tony has assured me that I'm safe here because he talked with him. What Tony doesn't now is that he will not let Tony or another government agency get in the way of what he wants."

"You aren't a monster Bruce. You're one of the nicest people I know. A monster would have not helped explain what the big words Tony uses to me. Also I don't think whoever is after you will be able to get to you when Tony has the best security system ever and the Hulk has gotten a little popular after the invasion."

"Everyone says I'm not a monster but you and Tony are the only ones who do not act like I'm a monster when I'm around. Everyone who knows is cautious and wary of me, even the other Avengers. They're afraid that anything will set the Hulk loose."

"I don't treat you like a monster because you aren't one. Besides the Hulk helped with the invasion without killing anyone right? The hulk might not be as bad as you think it is."

"Whatever you say."

"Is everything okay in there?" Tony's voice came from the door. Bruce sighed before turning to the door.

"Everything is fine Tony we'll be out in a minute." Bruce responded sounding exasperated. He turned towards me and sked me in a gentle tone. "Are you hungry? You slept through the rest of the night and most of the morning."

"A little bit," I responded lightly. I would have said no but I did not think I would win that argument with the three Avengers that I met so far.

"I want to see you eat at least half of what we put on your plate. If you don't like it Steve will make you something else. You need to eat as you are way too skinny to be healthy." Bruce declared as he led me through the door.

"I'm not used to eating that much and if I eat too much I'll just throw it back up." I protested.

"I know that. That is why I said half the plate and not all of the plate." Bruce replied. "I know Steve will give you a lot more food than you can eat and I will not attempt to talk him out of it. It is useless to argue with him when it comes to things like that."

Why has everyone made me accept things lately? Why am I suddenly unable to negotiate things that directly involve me? I was thinking about my sudden inability to control my own life while walking behind Bruce. It was kind of disturbing how little control I had over my life lately.

"It nice to see you awake Peter." Steve commented as Bruce and I walked into the kitchen. "Are you feeling better now?" I blushed at the reminder of last night. I had burst into tears in front of three of the Avengers.

"I'm sorry about last night, I don't usually lose control like about." I apologized, looking down at my feet.

"There is nothing to be ashamed of Peter. Everyone needs a good cry once in a while." Steve assured me.

I looked up and gave him a slight smile in gratitude. In doing so I noticed that there were two other people in the room that I was unfamiliar with.

"Pete this is Natasha and Clint who is also known as birdbrain." Tony introduced when he saw where I was looking.

"It's nice to meet the person that Tony would not shut up about all day yesterday." Clint offered as a greeting, ignoring the last part of what Tony said.

"It's nice to meet the person that was making Steve here so worried all night." Natasha greeted right after Clint.

"So now that sleeping beauty is awake, we can now talk about his adoption." Tony got right to the point. "I got all the necessary papers filled out and ready. Bruce will share custody with all of the Avengers, but he'll be the legal guardian."

"If only you were so efficient with all your other paper work." A new voice chimes in.

"But Pepper, that's why I hired you to do all the paperwork for me." Tony complained sounding a lot like a five year old.

"You hired me to be CEO of your company, as the owner you still have to fill out some paperwork of your own. And now that I am the CEO and not your secretary, I do not have the time or the responsibility to remind you that you need to do it." Responded the person Tony called Pepper.

"You're serious about adopting me?" I asked abruptly, butting into the conversation.

"Of course, you're an amazing kid and you aren't cursed, no matter how much you argue otherwise." Tony assured right away. I was going to protest when Bruce cut in.

"You're not going to be able to get out of this." He explained. "We just want to help you. We know that you're afraid that we will die like all the others but they didn't have superhuman abilities like we do. If anything it's you who is being put in the most danger from us adopting you. We all have dangerous enemies that could try to hurt or kill you in order to harm us. We'll do everything in our power to make sure that doesn't happen, but there's still a risk. I won't lie to you about that. You've been through a lot and lying about things like that will only make it worse for you."

"You might not appreciate us adopting you now, but hopefully in the future you will." Steve added to what Bruce said. "I might not like forcing people into situations, but sometimes it is necessary in order to help that person."

"But I don't need any help!" I protested weakly.

"Kid, I just met you five minutes ago and I know that's a huge lie." Clint commented from his seat. "You're living on the streets, you're close to looking like a skeleton, and you look and smell like you haven't showered in a while. In addition I know personally that it's not safe for a kid your age to be living on the streets by yourself."

"But, I don't have any of my things and you don't understand just how many people around me have died." I tried to argue.

"We do understand Peter. I don't allow anyone into my tower without extensive background checks on them." Tony stated, making me freeze. "But everything I found out about you made the want for you to stay here bigger and show that you need a lot more help than one can see you need just by looking at you. You may be in more danger from others here, but you need help to the point that does not matter. It's only so long before something horrible happens to you if you stay out on the streets."

There was a long silence after he was done. He sounded so serious and unlike what the media portrayed him to be. I know that the media exaggerates and makes up things but it usually is based on a truth.

I thought back to what he said for a couple of minutes. I was a little relieved as there was a chance that he found out I was Spider-man because of all the resources he has available to him. The relief was very little compared to the dread and confusion I felt. They, or at least Tony, knew about all the death that happened in my life and I dreaded the fact that they would treat me different or hate me. It was silly for me to fear that they would hate me because they knew and were still adopting me, but I could not help it. The fact that they were still adopting me is what caused me to be confused. My thinking was interrupted by Pepper.

"I don't know who you are, but you have defiantly made a huge impact on Tony. As the impact is a good one, I welcome you to the Avenger's tower." She exclaimed. "Well that and I couldn't live with myself if I said no and threw you back onto the streets. We haven't been formally introduced. Hello I am Pepper Potts, but you can call me Pepper."

"Peter Parker," I whispered, shaking her outstretched hand. I mentally berated myself for not noticing how she got so close. I really needed to stop getting lost in my thoughts. She gave me a kind smile before turning back to Tony.

"So he's the reason that I haven't been able to find you all day?" She asked him accusingly.

"Yes," Tony replied quickly, in an unconvincing way.

"I will let you get away with avoiding your work for today but you ca not put off work forever." Pepper informed him sternly. "The only reason that I am allowing it is because you were trying to help Peter. Do not get it in your head that I will do this again because this is a one-time thing. See you around Peter." She waved at me as she left.

"The only thing we need to do now is determine what your last name is going to be. It is fine if you do not want to change it. That is actually probably the safest option for you anyway. I can also understand if you want to change it as sometimes a new name can be a new start for some people. The last option is to put a hyphen in the middle of the two names and become Parker-Banner or Banner-Parker." Tony explained.

"Tony!" Both Steve and Bruce chorused in a scolding manner.

"What? It is better to address the problem now rather than later. Besides, he needs something to get him to accept the fact that he is going to be adopted by Bruce who will privately share custody with the rest of us." Tony defended himself.

"There is really nothing I can do to prevent you from going through with this is there?" I diverted the conversation with a resigned tone,

"Nope," Steve, Tony, and Bruce replied automatically.

"It is hard to get one of them to change their minds on something like this. They are all really stubborn and with all three of them you do not stand a chance." Clint commented from where he had been watching the whole exchange. Natasha, who was standing next to him, nodded in agreement.

"Then I would like for my last name to stay Parker in order to honor my family." I decided. I was proud with myself as my voice did not crack once as I said it.

"That is fine Peter." Bruce said in a comforting voice. I guess while it did not show in my voice, my face must have showed the despair that I was feeling.

"Now that we have that settled, let me show you your room." Tony changed the subject immediately.

"Room?" I asked dumbly.

"Since you are going to live with us, you are going to need your own room. I will give you a floor like everyone else once you get settled in. For now I have prepared a room on Bruce's floor." Tony explained.

"I do not understand. Why are you doing so much for me?" I questioned, feeling traitorous tears try to escape.

"Because, even though you do not think so, you deserve it. You are an amazing person that has been through more than a boy your age should." Tony stated while putting a hand on my shoulder. He looked straight at my eyes as he continued. "We want to help you, but you need to be willing to accept our help."

"Why don't we go see your room?" Bruce suggested and I gave him a small, grateful grin. I was on the verge of another mental breakdown and the distraction was much appreciated. Nodding my head slightly, I took the hand that he had extended to me.

"Oh, I am coming. There is no way that I am going to miss Peter's reaction to his new room." Tony announced. "Well that and the fact that I am the one who decorated it and Bruce does not know which one I assigned to Peter." Before the elevator doors had a chance to close I heard Natasha's voice with my heightened hearing.

"We have to help him." I could not dwell on her words though as Tony continued to ramble on about my floor and how I was going to love it.

"I have been working on it all night on it and-" I just started to tune Tony out after that.

The elevator doors opened to reveal a neat room that was designed to comfort and relax the person living in it. There was everything from a massage chair to yoga mats scattered around the room. There was even a coffee machine that I was informed also made tea.

"I still think this is too much Tony." Bruce weakly protested. It was clear to me that Bruce was fully aware that Tony would do nothing about it.

"I will have nothing but the best for my science bro and the money I spent on this floor is pocket change to me." Tony revealed while leading us to where my room was supposed to be.

"You plan on giving me a floor like this?" I exclaimed. "I am fine with just a room. You do not need to go out of your way for me."

"Peter you are getting your own floor. This matter is nonnegotiable. Besides you deserve it and I want to go out of my way to do things for you." Tony informed me in a tone that showed there was no arguing with him over this. He then stopped in front of a door that was supposedly to my room. "I made sure to put your room across the hall from Bruce. If you need something Jarvis will help you but do not be afraid to ask Bruce for help. With all that you have been through I know that you will have nightmares. I have some myself and they are to be taken seriously. If you have one I doubt Bruce will mind if you wake him up for comfort. You can ask Jarvis to retrieve me if you want. I am usually up anyways working on some project or another."

"I do not mind if you wake me up if you have a nightmare or simply need someone to comfort you. In fact I hope you do because keeping everything to yourself and bottling up all the pain is not healthy. You have to get through the pain in order to start and go through the healing process of your mental state." Bruce whispered to me. I was barely aware of the fact that I was close to having another mental breakdown.

"Well now that we have established that it is time to see your room." Tony declared as he opened the door to my room. What I saw left me speechless.

The room was almost as big as the house I lived in with Aunt May, and that was without the walk-in closet and personal bathroom. I was in too much awe to get lost in the pain that her name brought up. Still stunned, I gazed around my new room. My attention was immediately caught on the pictures that were placed around the room.

"I did my best to dig up any images I could as I know you were not able to take much to the orphanage. I thought it would make you more comfortable and help you adjust to living with us." Tony explained when he deduced what I was staring at.

I knew there were tears going down my face again, but at that moment I did not care at all. Launching myself at Tony I held onto his shirt as I let the tears flow down my face again. Soon my sobs died down and I fell asleep again. This had been a mentally exhausting day.


	9. Chapter 9

"No!" I said softly, bolting into a sitting position with my hand out in front of me. I was soaked in my own sweat and panting.

In order to get my mind off the nightmare and calm my breathing, I focused on where I was. The bed I was on was much softer than any abandoned one that I could ever find. I could not imagine that anyone would even think of leaving a mattress this comfy behind. It felt a little weird to me after sleeping on the floor and a mattress that was almost as bad as the floor.

The second I opened my eyes, I was reminded of the whirlwind of events that has been my life for the past couple days. That explained why the Avengers had joined the multitude of people that I could not to save in my nightmare. Running my right hand through my hair-a habit that I have not been able to break- I looked around the room that was now mine which was barely lit with rays from the rising sun. I had slept through diner and most of the night.

The bed I was sitting on was definitely king-sized and had a nice navy blue comforter on it that reminded me of the color of my Spider-man suit. The walls were colored exactly like the color of the comforter that I was currently sitting on. To my right was a nightstand that was pitch black, matching the bed frame. Atop of the nightstand was an alarm clock that had what looked like some sort of charger built into it. Far to the right of me was a door, open just enough to see that it was a bathroom. Next to the bathroom was another door that was a walk-in-closet which was already full.

Briefly, I wondered if I should even be slightly surprised that Tony knew my sizes. He was a technology genius after all and could get my sizes easily. Then again, being able to do something and actually doing something are two different things.

In the far left corner from me, was a desk with a computer, that I was sure was not on the market yet, and a bunch of other advanced technology to go with it. There was also a Stark tablet that looked like Tony personally made it himself. Which is ridiculous because why would he do something like that when he had tons of other important things to do. Sure, Tony was not the CEO of stark industries anymore, but he is still the owner of it. Also there is no reason for him to do that when I do not deserve it. I did not deserve everything that I had been given. I have caused so many deaths, I did not deserve to even meet the Avengers. I need to leave. I cannot survive the guilt of causing another death.

I then realized I was no longer panting, instead I was now hyperventilating. Curling into a fetal position, I tried to calm down but the nightmare was fresh in my mind and my former thoughts made it impossible. I dimly registered the fact that fat tears were pouring down my face. I was having a panic attack. That knowledge did nothing to help me as I panicked over that as well.

Suddenly, my door was slammed open and I pitifully raised my head to see Bruce with a worried expression and a solemn-looking Tony was right behind him. Bruce hesitated before he slowly wrapped his arms around me while Tony stood next to Bruce. Tony was clearly did not know what to do.

That was all that I saw before I was unable to hold my head up anymore. It took concentration that I did not have. Despite the logical part of me saying that I will get attached to the man holding me, I furrowed my head into Bruce's shirt. He kept holding onto to me, whispering comforting words, even though I was positive that I soaked his shirt.

By the time I had both my tears and breathing under control Tony was mirroring what Bruce was doing on my other side. With the panic attack over, I had so many questions in my head. Why are they being so nice to me? Why am so weak? What makes them feel the need to help an orphan teen who has a history of people close to him dying? Did the encounter mean that I was close enough to them that they will die like everyone else in my life? Why did I allow them to comfort me when they are now in danger of being killed? How do I get out of here before I can do anymore danger?

"I'm sorry." I manage to mumble in a hoarse voice.

"What for?" Bruce asked in a soothing voice.

"For being so weak and for putting your lives in danger by getting closer to you."

"First of all, you're not weak. I went through your records. You have been through more than most people. I've seen people become criminals because of going through much less. Most would have resorted to cutting, drugs, drinking, and suicide. You're stronger than me. I lost my parents in a crash just like you did, and I resorted to drinking after that. You've been through much more and have done none of the things I listed. Second, you're not putting us in danger by getting close to us. It's not your fault that the people you loved died. You aren't able to control others actions and you can't predict the future. You are not responsible for their deaths. Third, even if you do put us in danger, we're the Avengers. Our lives are in danger every day, so even if we do die it will not be your fault. We chose to be heroes, and chose to put our lives at risk." Tony said in voice that would make anyone doubt everything the media portrayed him to be.

"You don't understand! You may have read about what happened, but you don't know exactly what happened and what was going on in my life. I could've prevented their deaths, but I didn't. You don't know how much I screwed up. You know nothing about how I've lived!" I yelled. He has no idea how much it hurts. Why was everyone so insistent on denying the obvious truth that the people around me die and it will keep happening?

"He never said he did. The one who probably understands how you feel best is Steve. He lost all his loved ones in what, to him, was an instant. The situation is totally different but the outcome is similar: You both lost all of your loved ones. I understand your fear of hurting others better than anyone else could. Will you give having loved ones one last shot? I'm taking a similar chance. I'm still nervous but can relax a little and I don't have to constantly be on the run." Bruce's voice was barely above a whisper and was calm. "Like Tony, I'm also not able to have a child but in the fear that they would bear the same burden as me. I would not doom an innocent baby with what I have to deal with. Having you as a son would be a privilege that I wish I could not have. It is okay if you don't come to view me like that and I don't expect you to call me dad even if you do. You don't have to worry about it because I'm not sure that I'm able to be killed because of the Other Guy."

His words had me thinking about the possibility. If anyone would understand what I have been through it would be the Avengers. Tony had a point earlier when he said that they dealt with dangerous things daily and I knew how big of a risk it is to be a hero. I tried to squash the idea of staying with them but I was too late. I already had the hope of having a family again. None of my friends or family had been a hero or had powers. Maybe they can protect themselves. The Hulk will not let Bruce die and the Hulk has yet to even bruise.

No! I cannot take the risk of trying the theory out. It is not worth it because if it is not true the Avengers will die. But, if I did not give them a chance it will be like saying I think they are too weak to protect themselves. What do I do? I cannot accept and I cannot say no.

At some point I will have to tell them about how I was Spiderman. It was impossible to know why I feel responsible for most of my loved one deaths. There was also a high chance that they would find out my powers. I cannot stop my reflexes and my Spidy-sense. I am bound to get into situation where I need to fight if I live with them. It will be clear to anyone that I have had a lot of fighting experience. While I could blame it on bullies and being on the streets, it is a flimsy excuse. Though it is not lying, anyone who has experience fighting can tell that there is something more.

I cannot survive losing anyone else because of me. Yet, I miss being hugged, having long debates about science, eating three meals a day, bathing regularly, having a home to come to, and having someone care about me. I have a chance to have all those things.

I warned them about the danger, so shouldn't they be prepared for something to happen? Also if I say no to their offer then I will hurt them. But, I cannot risk being selfish.

"Please Peter, let us help you." Tony sounded close to begging broke my internal debate.

"Why do you want me to stay so badly?" I asked because Tony had everything money could buy and invented the things that weren't able to be bought yet.

"During the invasion I thought I was going to die. One of my many regrets was not having a family to care for besides Pepper. Pepper is great, but only one person. I can't have a kid of my own. They would be hounded by the press, targeted by my enemies, and I'm absolutely certain that I would be terrible at taking care of a baby. When you talked with us at the expo, I found you to be everything that I would want to have in a son. While I'll not be your dad, I'm perfectly fine with being the cool, fun uncle that spoils you rotten. I think it suits me better and I can still call you family. Between that and the fact that you are kind and deserve a lot more than what life has put you through." Tony explained with a bitter sweet smile on his face. How can I say no after that? I never thought that Tony Stark would be able to talk like this, let alone admit he wanted a child. Though nearly dying will change a person.

"Okay," I murmured under my breath.

"What?" both Tony and Bruce asked.

"I said okay," I raised the volume just enough for both of them to hear. Then in a normal volume I added. "But I have to be able to retract my decision if anything happens to any of you because of me."

"Only if you promise to stay long enough to determine who was at fault. If you think it is your fault, let us confirm that it happened because of you before you leave. Also we have to decide whether it was your fault or not. You blame yourself over things that were not caused by you. Lastly, this is the only reason that you move out from here before you turn eighteen." Bruce negotiated. Mulling it over, I came to the conclusion that it was most likely the best I was going to get from him. While they say that it was not my fault, they do not know all the details that make it my fault. Once I explain those details everyone would agree that it was my fault.

"I promise." I whispered in what I hope was a steady voice. Hope of finally having a home and family was making me want to embrace this chance. Fear of causing any of the Avengers to die dimmed down the idea, but did not get rid of it.

Looking up for a second, I observed Tony's and Bruce's reaction. On Tony's face was a smile that was nothing like the smirk posted all over media. This smile was a genuine smile. In a similar fashion, Bruce had a real smile on his face. It was awkward, like a smile was rare. Both of them had some form of caring in their eyes. Letting out a little grin, I try to get used to the feeling of having that caring directed at me.

I quickly got rid of the grin. At this rate I will not want to leave by the end of the week. I need to focus on trying not to get attached. Agreeing to give living with the Avengers a chance was different then opening up to them. It is possible to live with someone and not care for them.

I knew that I was deluding myself. I knew that I already cared for some of the Avengers already. I knew that with that small amount of caring will lead me to viewing them as friends and/or family. I banished those statements and did my best to convince myself that I could prevent myself from getting close to them. It is safe to say that I was not successful.

"Now that we are done with all the serious and mushy stuff, we're going and getting breakfast. When Doc here is satisfied with the amount you eat you'll be working with us in my personal lab." Tony blurted out before I could start rethinking my decision of staying in the tower.

"You don't have to come with us, but it would nice if you did." Bruce assured me after glaring at Tony for a moment.

"You're going to love working with us if your reaction to just seeing what we were working on is any indication. I can show you some completed projects that you saw before. Some we were able to complete because of you. It is always nice to have another point of view in order to find things that we either overlooked, forgot, or didn't think of. I am hoping you will help me with starting to work on some new projects. We should go eat now, the sooner we eat, the sooner we can blow stuff up." Tony rambled.

"We are not going to blow things up." Bruce paused before continuing while standing up. "At least not intentionally."

"Aw, why not?" Tony whined. "It's so much fun."

"Because the last time you made something explode, which was yesterday morning, five of your employees quit. Four of them where the ones the ones who you hired to clean up your huge and/or dangerous messes. I am positive that I heard one of the cleaners mumble 'not again' when he walked into the lab." Bruce commented.

"I'm going to take a shower before we go. You don't have to wait for me." I inputted awkwardly. I was barely given a nod from both of them in acceptance. Picking out a white shirt and grey sweats, I thought about how even though I was the youngest physically, Tony was the youngest mentally. Well at least I hope he is. I have not met Thor and I have not gotten to know Clint and Natasha yet. I made sure I had a pair of boxers and a towel before locking the bathroom door behind me.

By the time I was done I felt truly clean for the first time since I started living on the streets. It was nice to have soap and shampoo. The shower itself was huge and had so many options to choose from and I spent a bit of time trying each option out. I used the toiletries provided eagerly. Brushing my hair was torture despite my recent haircut, brushing my teeth took a little while as I did so at least five times before the horrible taste in my mouth was gone, and using the razor to shave the stubble beard that had started to grow a week ago was the quickest.

I was not sure what to think when I opened the door once I got dressed. I did not expect that Tony and Bruce were going to still be there, but there they were, still arguing about the same thing. This left me confused because I was in the bathroom for at least thirty minutes. Why are they, two geniuses, still arguing about something so stupid? I chose not to voice this question because I really was not sure if I wanted to hear the answer.

"But still! Their job is the highest paying job besides what Pepper gets." Tony pointed out. "They even have the most benefits. They were warned what the job entitled when they signed their contracts. It's not my fault that they aren't able to handle their jobs. They don't even need to come in everyday; they're called in only when I make a serious mess."

"That's everyday Tony." Bruce stated bluntly.

"I'm finished cleaning up." I rushed when Tony paused for a second to look insulted. I really did not want to stand around waiting for them to finish.

"I don't blow up something every day Brucie, how could you say that? You just moved in, so you wouldn't know even if I did. Since you have so little faith in me, I am replacing you with Peter." Tony made a sad attempt to sound offended. "Come on new science buddy we'll eat then work without Banner." Tony then preceded in grabbing my arm and heading towards the elevator.

"I talked to one of the cleaners to apologize for the mess. He said he's been working for you for five years and the longest you have gone without blowing something up is a week and he was used to it. Even then you had three dangerous situations that were not from explosions." Bruce explained while he followed us onto the elevator.

"They are lucky that I do not call them more than I do. I found that cleaning it up with an invention or two was easier then hiding all the projects that I want to keep secret away every time something goes wrong. I would just use the inventions but there is only so many I problems that I able to build solutions to. Even if I did I would have to fire the cleaning team because they would not be needed." Tony revealed.

"Or you are just too lazy to get them out and use them." Bruce offered.

"You wound me Brucie." Tony faked hurt.

"Where is everyone?" I questioned when we got to the kitchen.

"Capsicle is either jogging or helping out rebuilding, Legolas likes to spend his spare time in the vents, and Natasha's in the gym." Tony answered as he sit on one of the tall stools that was next to a marble countertop big enough to be a table.

"Why did you only call Natasha by her real name?" I asked.

"He tried to give her at least one name to call her by. She threatened to shave his head with a knife if he ever tried to call her anything besides Natasha." Bruce explained with clear amusement at the story.

"Can we not talk about that? I have enough nightmares of that incident without you reminding me. So what is for breakfast today?"

"Whatever you make for yourself, I'm having a bowl of cereal. Do you want some Peter? We have a variety to choose from." Bruce informed Tony and asked me. I gave a nod, not really caring what I had. Any real food was better than the stuff I had to eat on the street.

"Why did you ask him and not me? Is today your 'be mean to Tony day'?" Tony pouted.

"Because he is my son. Also I have not been mean, I just stated facts." Bruce replied.

"He isn't your son just yet and they aren't facts." Tony argued.

This went on till Tony started eating his donut and could not be bothered to reply. Once we done they did not start arguing in favor of talking about science. They both tried to get me into the conversation even though I was trying not to. I did not want to get so into science that I forget to try to not get close to them. We made our way to the lab once Tony had a huge cup of coffee and Bruce had some tea that I never heard of.

When I stepped into the familiar lab, I remembered why I forgot about being distant last time. My mind was already trying going over what I learned from Tony and everything that I wanted to know still. I was not able to ask all the questions I had last time. Asking just one question couldn't do much harm, right?

But the answer made me ask another question. Soon I gave up trying not to get absorbed into science and started to try to do things with the resources in front of me. It was just that the science was too interesting. It was calming and I am able to forget about all my guilt and sadness. Besides, I did it once before and nothing happened yet.

Time seemed to go way too fast after that and it was soon lunch time. I could tell Tony was not used to stopping for lunch because he looked confused for a second when Bruce said he was going to make sandwiches to bring up. While Bruce was making them Tony and I made sure nothing would be a problem for us when we were eating. We had just finished and were washing off our hands when Bruce came back with a plate of around ten sandwiches. I was able to stomach one and a half before I could not eat anymore.

Resuming our previous activities as soon as we finished. It was late in the night when Bruce declared that we needed to eat dinner due to my constant yawning. I did not know why I was so tired when I slept more in the past two days than I usually do on the streets in a week.

"When on the streets you were constantly in what people call the "flight or fight" mode. It only made you sleep for the minimum amount of time. It would have caused you to be awake more than nightmares. You can sleep through nightmares, even if they are horrible. When you came here you deemed that this place is safe at some point and your body went out of that mode. Since you are able to relax here, your body is now trying to make up for the lack of sleep." Bruce's response to my question made me feel more okay about having to sleep so much and worried because I was on the path of viewing this place as a home.

While eating the chicken that Bruce had heated up, I debated trying to get out of here; running away. The memory of my promise to Bruce and Tony came forth and halted my thoughts before I could start thinking of a plan. I cannot afford to break any more promises. I have to stay here.

I said goodnight to the two scientists before I retreated to my room. Changing into just a pair of clean boxers, I burrowed myself in the blanket. When I had successfully cocooned myself, I thought about what I should do now. I was staying here till something happened because of me or me turned eighteen. How do I get myself into these situations?

After today I know that I am not able to stop myself from becoming attached to the Avengers. I guess I should stop trying to fight it. If things go well I will have friends and/or family. If I really am a curse, I might as well enjoy it until then. I will not be able to live if I lose another from both guilt and grief.

A heart can only break so many times before there is nothing left.


	10. Chapter 10

Slowly awakening, I groggily blinked my eyes. It was one of the rare times that I actually got a decent night's sleep. Of course there was nightmares, but they were nowhere near as malicious as the ones that plague me on most nights.

It took some time before I was able to muster up enough energy to get out of bed. Most people would turn over and fall back asleep in that situation. I would have too if I did not want to push my luck in regards to having nightmares.

Once standing, I immediately headed for the bathroom. With the events of yesterday I suppose I should start calling it my bathroom.

Closing the door, I gave out a hysterical giggle. How did I go from being an orphaned teen on the streets to living in the Avengers tower and being adopted be the Hulk? Leaning back against the door, I slowly slid into a sitting position. My laughter abruptly turned into sobs. It was always me. Why did it always have to be me? Why am I unable to get a break from the horror that has been my life?

I forced myself to stop crying. It was better that these types of situations happened to me rather than someone else. There were still some tears making their way down my face while I turned on the shower.

Showering took my mind off my sorrow. It was so nice to be able to shower everyday like I wanted to on the streets. I am never going to take that privilege for granted ever again. I added everything that came with having a home to stay in.

I wonder how long it will last this time. I know it will be ruined because of me, but how long will it take for that to happen? There is a tiny part of me that dares to hope that it will not happen. I dismiss this thought quickly. There was no use in hoping for something that was never going to happen.

After I was done getting dressed, I realized something: I still needed to get my duffle bag from my safe house. Mentally berating myself for my stupidity, I resolved to get it today. There was nothing stopping anyone from walking in and finding the Spider-man suit.

There was not just the danger of someone trying to take my place as Spider-man and getting hurt and/or killed. There was also the risk of someone finding out that I was Spider-man. There was enough stuff in there to lead someone to know right away who the owner of the bag and, in addition, the suit was. Any other person the bag could lead to was dead.

The familiar grumbling of my stomach brought to attention how hungry I was. Even though I know my stomach shrank due to the lack of food, I still had a bigger apatite than most. Well, that and I was not on the streets that long. I still had some muscle on my body. Considering that the body starts to eat at the muscles when a person does not consume enough protein, I was not as bad as I should have been.

I ventured out of the, no, my bedroom and tried to remember what floor the kitchen was on.

"What floor would you like to go to Mr. Parker?" JARVIS's voice startled me again. I forgot about him.

"Will you please take me to the level that the kitchen is on?" I ask politely, covering up my surprise very badly.

"Certainly Mr. Parker," came the response from what I assume was the ceiling.

When the door opened, I was welcomed by the smell of bacon and eggs. These smells were almost completely covered by the scent of coffee. A shudder ran down my back. Coffee and spider powers do not mix well.

"Good morning Peter!" Steve greeted. He was moving about the kitchen, making what looked like mountains of bacon and scrambled eggs.

"Isn't that a bit much?" I asked, staring warily at one of the piles. I was sure that it was going to tip over.

"Nope, between Thor and me eat over half of the food." Steve replied casually. It made a lot of sense when I thought about it.

"Why are you cooking?" I asked, seriously curious while sitting down. He was not familiar with most modern electronics, including kitchen appliances.

"Tony explodes things in here just as much as he does in the lab. While most of the time they are purposeful in the lab, all of them are incidental in here. Thor gets frustrated easily and crushes things with his hammer or uses too much strength holding something and crushes it. This was found out in the one day he stayed here. He hasn't been here to attempt to cook anyways. Natasha can cook, but doesn't like to. No one here is about to force her. Not even Natasha trusts Clint to cook. Finally, Bruce switches cooking days with me. Today it's my turn. Now why are you up so early?"

"I woke up and didn't want to risk going back to sleep."

"Risk?"

"Nightmares." I intoned, not elaborating. He probably already thought I was weak.

"Better than me then. I was woken up by a nightmare." Steve admitted, surprising me.

"Really?" I could not believe he willingly shared that with me.

"It's normal to have nightmares Peter. Every Avenger besides maybe Thor have them." Steve revealed. "We might be heroes, but we have lives and feelings too. There is always a story behind how a hero became a hero and most of the time it is not a happy story."

"I'm not a hero like you guys are, if anything I'm a villain." I state sadly.

"You are not a villain Peter. You are the most selfless and caring person I have ever met. You are a hero even if you deny it. Before you came all of us were tense, still in battle mode and unsure about each other. In the small amount of time you have been around us, you have made us relax and be more comfortable around each other. Fighting like we did developed a bond between us, but we have no idea how to approach that bond. All of us are unsure how to socialize and befriend others for some reason or another. You make it easier."

"You wouldn't call me a hero if you knew the truth of life." I whispered, once again on the edge of tears.

"Peter, I know you well enough that you would never hurt someone purposely." Steve said reassuringly. He had finished cooking.

"You don't understand." I repeated my statement from yesterday.

"Then help me understand why you think that you aren't a hero."

"I can't." I murmured, ducking my head. Tears were running down my cheeks. The only way for them to understand was for me to tell them that I was Spider-man. That was something I was not going to do.

Thinking about it, I most likely will not have to. There is no way that I can hide the fact that I have powers while living here. I was living with two super spies, some of my powers I used instinctively, and an attack by a villain could force me to reveal my powers.

This means that I can either tell them now or wait till they find out on their own. If I tell them now they might make them not want me anymore, therefor I will not have to risk their lives anymore. With the way they have been acting around me it is not likely. They will not see it how I see it. They have not gone through it. I do not think that anything I say will convince them. If I wait till they find out on their own they might not trust me anymore and throw me out for not telling them or not helping them. I think I will wait till they find out on their own. It will hurt me, but the pain will be less than if I lost one of them. I deserve it for causing so much pain to others.

I should just tell them. That little amount of pain could be the thing that causes the last of my heart to shatter. But, if that it is what it takes to keep the Avengers alive then I will do so. I know that I want to tell them now; to save myself the pain, to be selfish again. I will be hurting the Avengers, but it is better than them being dead. I keep telling myself that.

Yet, I want to just let everything go, spill every single thing to the Avengers. I want to be happy. I want to have a place to call home. But I shouldn't burden others with my problems. Steve may be right about me helping out the Avengers, but that is even more of a reason to not tell them. They are the real heroes and they deserve a break.

Why does my life have to be so complicated? Am I not allowed to have a simple, easy life?

After a long internal conflict, I decided that for now I would not tell them, but put no effort into hiding it either. I am not able to lie to them even about this. Why should I make an effort hiding something that they will find out eventually?

I wiped my face with the blue sleeve of the shirt I put on.

"Are you better now?" Steve questioned while setting down a plate full of food in front of me. I nodded and quietly thanked him for the food. There was no way I would be able to eat all the food that was on my plate, but I was confident that I could eat around half of it. I started eating and nodded in thanks to Steve when he placed a cup of orange juice in front of me.

"Is it okay if I go get somethings from one of my safe houses and maybe visit Gran while I'm out?" I asked, unsure of what I was allowed to do. I had just finished a little over half my plate.

"Sure Natasha and Clint can take you later if they are not busy. I have to do something that involves the agency that put the Avengers together and Bruce and Tony will be spending he entire day in the lab. It gives you some time to get to know them as you have not gotten to know them yet." Steve answered. He took a look at my plate and smiled as if he was satisfied with how much I had consumed.

"I'm doing what now?" Clint asked, coming out from one of the various vents.

"Peter here needs to get some things from one of his safe houses and might stop by to visit a very nice but stubborn old lady. You and Natasha are the only ones that are free with my knowledge." Steve explained.

"I'm sure Natasha will not mind. It gives us some time to figure out what about Peter here has you three so interested in him." Clint informed Steve and me.

"Is there any chance that I would be able to go alone?" I asked.

"Nope." Both Steve and Clint chorused.

"Like I said before, I need to figure out what the others find so interesting about you." Clint started and sat down in the seat next to me. "That and someone may have already figured out about you already and try and go after you. You living here is bound to make you a target to any of the enemies that find out. We're doing our best to hide the fact that you are living here but someone is bound to find out and it is better to be prepared anyways."

"Also you may have promised to give us a chance, but we don't know you well enough to know if you'll keep that promise." Steve added.

"I'll keep my promise, the last time I broke a promise it caused my girlfriend to die." I said meekly.

"I'm positive you've already heard this, but it's not your fault that she died." Steve repeated. "It's not your fault that all those close to you died."

"We'll leave as soon as you're ready." Natasha's voice startled me. Where did she come from and how long had she been there? Steve and Clint looked unaffected by her sudden appearance.

"You'll get used to it." Steve commented as he took in my expression. Apparently our previous conversation was over.

"I guess we can go now." I stated.


	11. Chapter 11

It was an awkward walk to my safe house. Well, it was for me anyways. Natasha did not seem to care and Clint kept talking and trying to start up a conversation with me. He was not able to get more than a couple nonverbal responses out of me. I was too nervous to hold a conversation.

Out of all the Avengers to come with me it had to be the two super spies; the ones most likely to notice my Spider-man suit. Then again, maybe Tony would be the worst because of his unrelenting curiosity. He would most likely not stop till he knew every item that was in my bag. As long as I do not open the bag and act as if I have nothing to hide, the two spies should not suspect anything.

"I would normally use this time to threaten you to not hurt anyone in the Avengers but from what I have learned about you the threat is unneeded." Natasha voice startled me. She had been silent up until now. "I know you are hiding something big; you basically admitted it. Though I can tell that you make it a lot more dangerous than it is because of personal experiences. If you think of yourself as a monster then I might as well be the devil with my ledger."

I stopped walking just to stare at Natasha for a minute. She just stated that she did not trust me fully and then revealed a very personal detail. What should I do? Why is everyone in the Avengers being so nice to me when I do not deserve it?

"Why are you being so open with me?" I asked. "I just met you today and you are already telling me things that you shouldn't tell a stranger."

"Well we trust that Tony has figured out almost everything about you. Also from what I have observed you aren't a bad person." Natasha explained. "Also you have captured my interest and that doesn't happen often. There is no way you can use the information I gave you to harm me."

"There may be things that Tony missed but they don't really matter because you are a very selfless person." Clint added on.

I spent a couple minutes thinking over what had been said. They would not care if they found out about me being Spider-man? They certainly would change their opinions of me if they knew I had the power to save all the people around me but didn't. They just did not understand yet. I guess they will eventually know how much of a failure I am. I did not say anything but continued walking.

There was a comfortable silence that lasted for a while.

"I thought that you said that you wouldn't be able to come here for a while." Gran's voice came from behind us. How did I forget about Gran? Then again, I have had other things on my mind that did not include Gran.

"Hey Gran," I greeted as I turned around.

"I see you made some new friends." Gran commented while pulling me into a hug. "Why don't you introduce us?"

"Gran meet Clint and Natasha," I introduced, getting out of Gran's firm grasp. "Clint and Natasha meet Gran. She is the one who gave me the pass to the Stark Expo where I met Dr.-I mean Bruce and then Tony."

"Thank you for giving us a chance to get to know this self-sacrificing idiot." Clint teased. I shrugged off the arm that he had slung over my shoulders and glared at him.

"I am glad that he found someone who is willing to look after him." Gran smirked knowingly.

"He's in good hands." Natasha affirmed.

"HE is standing right here and I am old enough to look after myself." I protested.

"You haven't been doing a very good job of it since you have been too busy helping others. Taking care of yourself seems to be at the bottom of your priority list." Gran rebuked my protest.

"You won't have to worry about him anymore. He is in good hands." Natasha informed Gran.

"Their friend Bruce wanted to adopt me and I couldn't deny the way he asked." I grumbled.

"I should thank you for getting through to this stubborn child." Gran thanked Natasha and Clint.

"You shouldn't be thanking us. We are not the reason that Peter agreed to finally accept some help. That was all due to the rest of our friends." Natasha informed Gran. "I will pass on your message though."

I had given up trying to argue about what they were saying. Eventually the conversation led to Gran accompanying us on the journey to my safe house. Any opinion I had about the matter was totally ignored. I did not want Gran to go through the shady area that I was living in. The thing that reassured me was the fact that there were two of the Avengers to protect her.

The closer we got to my house the shadier the city around us looked. The houses could barely be called houses and every other person was suspicious. A couple of the darker characters tried to approach us but Natasha swiftly took care of them. I made a mental note not to do anything that would even annoy her. She was very scary when she wanted to be.

"Don't worry she won't do anything to you unless you cause serious harm purposely to one of the people that she views as important." Clint whispered after the first encounter. "Especially when it comes to me, I am her very special person."

Clint had a limp in his right leg for the walk. Natasha did not appreciate Clint's comment apparently and made her displeasure known. It was an equally terrifying and awe inspiring sight to behold.

After some interesting experiences we finally made it to my safe house. Looking at the three who I led to it, I tried to judge their reactions. It was hard when they all had on really good poker faces. But there were a couple signs, like some slight stiffening of muscles, which showed that they did not like what they saw.

"It is good that you already agreed to stay at the tower because there is no way that any of us would allow you to continue living in a place like this." Clint commented with tension in his voice.

"What makes me so different from all the others that have to live in similar conditions as this? I know that there are a lot of other people who live just like me. The recent alien invasion increased that number significantly." I asked suddenly, genuinely confused. There were so many other better deserving people than me.

"You may not be the only one living like this but you are the one that we can help." Clint stated. "In order to deal with being a hero is that you can't save everyone. Yet, every life we do save is one life that wasn't ended. We can't take in every homeless person. Also people need to learn how to not rely on other people to dictate how their lives will be. We can help push them on but we can't make them take charge of their lives."

"But let's not talk about such serious stuff. If we take too long Tony will track us down with one of the, most likely, many trackers that he placed on you."

"What!" I exclaimed as I started searching my body franticly for anything that could be a tracker.

"Don't even bother. You will likely not find all of them and Tony will just replace any of the ones you remove as soon as he can without you knowing." Clint advised. "All of my weapons that he upgrades have trackers on them and I know there is one in my shoe somewhere. It's his weird way of saying that he cares."

"You're okay with this?" I turned and asked Natasha.

"I have my ways of riding myself of them." She informed me with a sly tone.

"And you still haven't told me!" Clint complained like a little kid. "I want to annoy Stark too!"

"You sure are an interesting bunch." Gran commented. I sent her a disbelieving look at her.

"That is the only thing you have to say about this absurd conversation?" I asked a little hysterically.

"Everyone has their own ways to care of the ones they cherish. Besides, you seem like you want to bolt at any second. It is a necessary precaution."

Why must my life be so abnormal?

"How did you live here?" Clint asked as soon as he saw the inside of the safe house. "This place looks like it will collapse on itself any second."

"Well it used to look much worse before I fixed it up." I revealed. "I stayed here because it has minimal cracks for the cold to get in, it is not surrounded by druggies, and it's safer than sleeping in the street where I'm an easy target for any common thug who is looking for someone to beat up."

"That last point is debatable." Natasha remarked. "This place could have collapsed with you in it at any moment." No one said anything else and the conversation died.

We left the safe house after grabbing the duffle bag that contained what little things that I owned. Luckily for me I had packed everything in the bag beforehand.

On the way back Gran insisted on treating us all to lunch. Clint, Natasha and I tried saying that she didn't have to and that we had lunch waiting at home. I now know that once Gran sets her mind on something it is impossible to say no to her. She will not allow you to.

After taking us to a nice, but not expensive restaurant, we escorted her home. She made sure that I ate more than half of the huge plate of food that she got me. I was only able to manage it because she ordered one of my favorite foods. Before she went inside her shop she wrangled a promise out of me to visit her tomorrow.

"Sorry we're took longer than expected some stubborn old lady who knew Peter insisted on treating us to lunch." Clint apologized, not sounding sorry at all. "I am sure you know already as Tony probably checked where we were using his stalker equipment."

"It is the most advanced technology that isn't even on that market." Tony argued.

"That you use for stalking." Clint added.

"I am with Clint on this one." Steve informed. "I may not understand how the tech itself works, I understand what it does. I agree that it is creepy to know that you know where I am as at all times."

"Bruce do you think I am creepy?" Tony whined.

"Yes and with Peter it makes you seem like a pervert." Bruce stated casually.

"You all are mean." Tony pouted.

"And you are a stalker and a pervert." Clint commented.

"At least Peter is nice to me." Tony despaired as he slung an arm around my shoulders.

"I understand the need to put trackers on us but that does not make it any less creepy that you do so without our consent." I gave my opinion. To this, Tony sulked and went off to probably go blow something up.

"So was did Peter by any chance call this old lady Gran?" Steve changed the subject.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Clint asked curiously.

"I met her the day I brought home Peter. She is a stubborn woman who wouldn't allow us to say no to the lunch that we were offered." Steve replied.

"It is good to hear that we were not the only ones who were not able to say no to her." Clint responded.

"I am curious as to how she got you all to accept a meal from her." Bruce mused.

"When I first met her she said that she was a stubborn old hag who wouldn't take no for an answer." I inputted.

"Sounds like an interesting person." Bruce commented.

"She is the reason that I was able to come to the Stark Expo and meet you." I revealed.

"Then I will have to thank her." Bruce said.

"We already did that for you when Peter told us before." Natasha spoke up.

"Thank you for that." Bruce turned to her.

"No need, I am also thankful that she let us have the opportunity to meet Peter." Natasha replied.

"I'm happy that we got the chance to help you." Steve directed this statement to me.

"I still don't understand why you all want to help me." I voiced to all of them.

"It's because you are such a good person." Steve, who was Captain America, told me.

"You're all insane," was the only thing I said.


	12. Chapter 12

I was a little paranoid with my suit in the tower. There was not a minute that I was not worrying over whether or not the Avengers would find it. It had only been in the tower since a couple hours ago and its presence constantly made itself known. I should have left it in the safe house.

But if I left it there anyone could find it if they entered and looked through my things. It is safer for it to be here where only a select few can get to it. Safer for others, but it is not safer for me. I am pondering telling the Avengers; if only for my health.

Giving up trying to sleep, I went to go get a midnight snack. It might help calm my nerves and get my mind on something else. If not, then it might help me gain some weight so the Avengers will stop trying to feed me a lot more than I am able to eat.

I went to the kitchen to find Bruce already there with a cup of tea. I nodded at him before getting a glass of milk and making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"Nightmares?" Bruce asked simply.

"No just too anxious to fall asleep." I replied.

"Are you willing to share what is making you anxious?" Bruce questioned.

"I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop; for everything to go wrong." I answered honestly.

"Even if things do get bad we will be by you the entire time. There is nothing that will motivate us to get rid of you. Get used to it now because you're stuck with us."

"With Tony being how he is I doubt I will be able to get rid of you all even if I tried."

"It's him and Steve you need to worry about. Steve can get really determined and stubborn when he wants to be."

"He does seem the type to worry over everyone." After that there was a comfortable silence as we enjoyed our respective food.

"I can give you some melatonin to try if you want." Bruce offered. "It usually works to put people to sleep. I always keep some in stock because most of us who live here have sleep troubles."

"Sure," I said after a moment's contemplation. It couldn't hurt to try. Melatonin is something that is made by the body and supplements are relatively safe. The supplements are derived from animal glands. The most I have to worry about is my spider DNA rejecting the melatonin because it came from another animal. If I have a chance of getting a good night sleep the risk is worth it.

After taking some with a glass of milk I said goodnight to Bruce and went back to my room.

Laying down, I tossed and turned while waiting for the melatonin to do its job. Even with the talk with Bruce I could not stop thinking that when the Avengers find my suit they will kick me out.

Maybe I should tell them now to not risk more hurt later. The longer it takes for them to figure it out, the more attached to them I will be. Might as well do it now when it will hurt but not as much as it would if I waited. Alright, I will tell them tom-.

For once in the last couple months I was reluctant to get out of bed. I had no nightmares and I was comfy in my blanket cocoon. I also was procrastinating revealing that I was Spider-man for a little longer. Letting myself indulge in the miracle that was my situation.

How should I reveal that I am Spider-man? How should I reveal my biggest secret to my heros? How should I prepare myself for the inevitable pain of shattered hopes? Will they not like me and leave me alone out of pity? Will they hand me over to some organization that will throw me in a cell? Will I still be able to continue on after they reject me? Probably not, despite knowing them for only a short time I care for them.

I can't see Gran after, there is a chance that the Avengers will go see her. Maybe with them around her it will be okay that I broke my promise to her.

I will not be able to use the safe house that I went to yesterday. I have to remove all chances of running into them. Just the sight of them will rip open the wounds that will be on my heart from the separation.

But what if they accept me? They have expressed numerous times that they will not reject me. But that is just because they did not know, right? What if they don't reject me? I will have a family again. I need to reveal that I was Spider-man because they have a right to know the truth about me.

After a while I finally found enough courage to get out of bed to get ready. I made the process take a lot longer than the time I do it in normally. The whole time my thoughts were all over the place; wondering about the Avenger's reactions.

I decided to just show them the suit. It was the easiest solution for me. It did not require that much courage to do compared to outright saying it.

I have to disappear before they react. I do not want to see the disgust or disappointment on their faces. I would rather keep the hope of them excepting me then see those expressions. Even if they do accept me, I will have broken a promise by leaving without consulting anyone first. Being around them after breaking a promise is like I was asking for them to get killed.

The problem is all the trackers that Tony has on me. The first thing I need to do is get a new pair of clothes. With the way Tony is all of the clothes he got me will have at least one tracker on me. Also he might have ways of using Jarvis to put trackers on me. The chances that the Avenger's will not go after me are very small. If they reject me, I am a threat that needs to be kept under control. If they accept me, then they are going to try to get me to stay with them.

So I went to the main floor with my heart pounding so loud I thought that Jarvis might comment on it. I fiddled around with the suit in my hands due to my nervousness. This was it. This was the time to see if all my hopes were mere fantasies or possible reality.

Getting off the elevator, I was greeted with the sight of Clint trying to get out of a weird hold Natasha had him in, the kitchen was emitting smoke, and Bruce was on a couch calmly reading a book.

"What happened?" I was still in a little shock as the question passed through my lips. Bruce was the only one who paid me any attention.

"Clint tried to cook again and Natasha caught him." Bruce stated like it was not a big deal.

"And why doesn't this concern you at all?" I asked.

"It takes a lot to make me unnerved and this attempt was better than his last one." Bruce calmly answered.

"Okay then, I'll just go now." I said, not knowing how to deal with this situation. I made sure to drop of the duffle bag in the middle of the table before leaving.

"Come back in around an hour to get edible food." Bruce commented, not once looking up from his book.

Now I just have to take care of Jarvis. He was told by Tony to warn the Avengers when I try to leave. Then again, Tony never specified how Jarvis should contact him.

"Jarvis alert Tony by using his least checked email about me trying to escape."

"Yes, sir." A voice answered from the ceiling. Tony probably made it so I would not be able to stop Jarvis from alerting Tony, so this was the best choice. "I would recommend that you stay here as it is better to your health."

"It might be better for my health but not for the Avenger's health." I said as I walked out the door.

First thing that I needed to do was to get to Gran's in order to change my clothes. There is no way Tony could have injected me with a tracker without my spidey-sense going off. The only way he could have gotten a tracker inside me was if he had me ingest it Since the tracker is no danger to me and my spidey-sense has been weaker, along with the rest of my body, due to the lack of food and sleep. With my high metabolism, the tracker would not last longer than a day. I just have to dodge the Avengers until then.

I weaved through the crowds with practiced ease while I headed towards Gran's flower shop. I was not running in order to blend in with the crowds of people who were going about their lives. It would be easier to find me that way. Sure, Gran's place is probably the first place that the Avengers would check, but it was necessary. If they find out before I make it to Gran's I will have to try to avoid them with multiple trackers on me. Doing so sounds close to impossible, even by my standards. So I need to make it to Gran's before that.

I was paranoid the whole way there, thinking that every other person was an Avenger in disguise, but I got to the flower shop.

"Where are your bodyguards?" Gran asked as soon as she saw me. She immediately sat me down and put food in front of me.

"I am able to take care of myself. I have survived on the streets by myself." I told her despite the fact that I probably would not have survived without my powers. While I disliked my powers, I needed to use them in order to stay alive.

"Barley, and while you may be able to protect yourself from others you need someone to protect you from yourself." Gran retorted. "It's you who chooses to not accept anyone's help and distance yourself from others. You're the one that can do the most damage to yourself."

"But that is my punishment for being selfish." I argued feebly.

"See that is a perfect example of how you are harming yourself. You're trying to make yourself hurt. Is it not enough that you don't have anyone to care for you and you lived on the street for months?" She prodded me.

"Maybe, but the chance that I may lose another precious person terrifies me. It terrifies me to the point that I would rather hurt and be lonely than to face it." I admitted shakily.

"How are you ever going to be happy if you do not take that risk?" Gran asked.

"I won't, but my happiness is less important than someone's life."

"Sometimes whether to follow through with a risk is not up to you. I want to get close to you and it seems that the Avengers do too." Gran informs me. "Let us decide if the risk is worth it or not."

"But-"

"We choose what we want to do with our lives and I choose to become one of your precious people."

Suddenly, my Spidey-sense went off. I turn around to see men in uniforms filing into the room.

"Ahhhhh isn't that sweet. I almost feel bad ruining it." The person who I guessed was the leader. "But orders are orders, and I have an order to capture one Peter Parker." I frantically looked for any exits that at least Gran could escape from. There were none.

"If you are only after me then you would not mind leaving Gran here alone, right?" I needed to get Gran out of here.

I got no answer as my spider sense went off. With my weak state, I was not able to avoid the needle that was infected into my skin. Whatever was in the needle kicked in right away and my vision started to blur. I knew I needed to help Gran get out of this situation but my vision was rapidly being overcome by darkness. Gran….


	13. Chapter 13

The pounding in my skull made it painful to wake up. Whatever they injected into me was wearing off. I have not figured out if drugs go through my system as quick as food does so I faked being unconscious. While I was worried about Gran, I needed to get myself out of here first. Then again, they may be using Gran to keep me here. I also am not able to use my powers incase the escape plan fails. I do not want to risk possibly being experimented on. That is, if that wasn't their objective in the first place. I faked gaining consciousness in case anyone was looking after a while.

There are too many unknowns for me to even attempt to break out of this blank grey room that I woke up in. With the only things in the room being a cot and a what looked to be a high-tech cuff that attached to the wall. Together with the fact that the cuff side was attached to my ankle, I was almost 100 percent sure that I was in a cell.

The cuff lead me to believe that whoever had me had money from somewhere that was backing them. Not that this fact helped at all. Between the Avengers' enemies and my enemies, there were too many people had the resources to do this. Not that I know very many of the Avengers' enemies.

The two things that I can do now is wait and hope that the pounding in my head goes away some time soon. I will have to try and find out what my captors know and proceed from there.

I just hope that they are not doing anything to Gran, or did anything to Gran. I hope that they need her as a hostage because that means that they will keep her alive and hopefully in one piece.

The door opened showing two men dressed in the uniform that I saw the people who kidnapped me were wearing. They said nothing as they approached me. I decided that there was no use in struggling as I did not know what situation I was in. They proceeded in securing my hands behind me with some other technical device that covered both my wrists and my hands. One it was in place one of the men unlocked the cuff around my ankle.

Grabbing my elbows, the two grunts started to drag me out of the room and through a series of hallways. I tried to keep track of the route we were going but lost track after the fifteenth turn.

Finally, we stopped at a room and the guy to my left let go of me and opened the door with his fingerprint. The guy to my right lead me into the room to a chair while the other got rope and tied me to it. The chair was made out of metal and was melded to the floor. Unless I somehow got the ropes along with the device on my hands there was no way that I was going anywhere. After I was secured to the chair the two grunts left without a word.

"Well that was certainly informative." I said to the empty room. The room itself was made up of the chair I was sitting on, a monitor on the wall, and a control panel under the monitor. The walls were metal, like the last room I was in.

I did not wait long before an older man with a mustache walked in. He stared at me for a little while and I observed him. He was definitely not a grunt like the last two were and had the posture and aura of someone who is used to being in charge.

"What makes you so interesting that the Avengers see in you." He asked after a few minutes.

"I don't know, why don't you ask them that?" There was no mistaking the sarcasm in my voice. I was was aware that pissing off your captor was not the smartest thing to do, but I was a little annoyed at him or involving Gran. I was rewarded with a slap to the face.

"You will not talk to me that way!" He paused. "It really doesn't matter why they're interested in you as long as you can be used as bait I suppose."

"They won't come for me." I told him. They probably did not want to after how I left."

"That is where you are wrong. They are already out looking for you even though you haven't been missing for that long." Before I could think of a response there was a loud explosion that rocked the room.

"Looks like they are here already." He paused to get a radio from off his belt. "All units not engaging the intruders or has a guard duty elsewhere report to interrogation room three."

"Why aren't you telling them all to stop the intruders because there is no way the Avengers will be stopped by mere minions unless there are too many minions to deal with."

"I have no doubt that the Avengers will wipe out the minions that are trying to stop them, but I am making sure I don't lose the biggest advantage I have over them: you."

As we were talking minion after minion were flooding into the room. There was not one of them that didn't have at least one weapon.

"So who are you anyway? You haven't given the whole villain rant yet."

"Someone a street-rat like you doesn't deserve to know my name and I am not a villain."

"Usually kidnapping is not something that people do if they aren't a villain."

"Usually people that are kidnapped don't talk back." He said before backhanding me across the face.

Despite the want to know where Gran went, I did not ask. With the way that he responded he wouldn't have told me and there would be no proof that he was telling the truth without putting Gran in a position for further harm. It would be best if I did not bring any attention to her.

Soon the faint sounds of fighting was heard coming from outside the door of the room. The room itself was filled with men and women that were aiming their weapons at me. My Spidy-sense was giving me a migraine with all the danger that I was in. I didn't need it to know how much danger I was in and did not appreciate it doing so.

Gradually the sounds got louder and louder, until it was clear that someone was in front of the door. There was sounds of people talking before the door opened. There were the Avengers, minus the Hulk, ready for a fight. Once they assessed the situation, they were visibly wary and cautious of the situation. They did not move but they did not get out of their fighting positions either.

"What is your move Avengers?" The guy I still do not know the name of asked in a smug tone.

"Does the president know what you are doing with government resources, General Ross?" Tony asked, ignoring the previous question with practiced ease.

"What the president doesn't know won't hurt him. Besides, this is all for the good of the country. I realized that instead of trying to replicate the super soldier serum, we should be focusing on how to make our more Hulks that listen to the United States."

"That plan is has too many huge flaws. First of all how are you going to control the hulks without getting smashed in the process of figuring out how. Second, how many people will be sacrificed in the process of trying to make this group of Hulks including those who are the ones being turned into the Hulk and those trying to get the Hulk or Hulks under control. Third what if the US government is infiltrated and someone uses the the hulks against us one they are under control. Lastly, who would control them a lot of people can let that sort of power go to their heads or bribed, or even threatened?" Tony pointed out the many major problems with the guy who was apparently General Ross's plan. All of the Avengers never took their eyes off of me and the guns that were pointed at me.

"Controlling them is just modifying technology that has already been in development. The losses from making the hulks will be nothing compared to the lives that it will save from troops that don't have to go into battle. As for who will control them, of course it will be me." General Crazy, my new name for him, explained.

"You are obviously unfit to have such power because the power you do have, you are using to kidnap an innocent teen that has done nothing wrong." Steve remarked.

"Also we have successfully distracted you from our plan." Tony says as the door closes with the Avenger's behind it and smoke covers the room.

"And what plan is that?" asked Ross "If it involves your archer friend in the air ducts then you should know that the air vents in this room are isolated from the rest of the building. We also have a security system in the vents that allows us to close off portions of them in order to trap whoever is in them. Now I believe that your actions should have some consequences."

Before anyone could say anything there was two gunshots and a searing pain went through my shoulder and my foot. I was not totally successful in holding in the cry of pain that wanted to escape.

"Peter!" I am pretty sure at least Tony and Steve shouted. All of the Avengers looked tense and like they were barely restraining themselves from coming to my aid.

"Just because we need him alive for him to be leverage against you doesn't mean that he needs to be unharmed or in one piece." Ross commented. With a wave of a hand two of the grunts tied cloths around the bullet wounds, but did nothing to take the bullets out. I grinded my teeth as the fabric made contact with my open wounds. "Now where is the Hulk?"

"He is on his way as his alter ego heard the gunshots over the com and is not happy."

Tony strained to get out through his clenched teeth with anger clear in his voice. I was just able to concentrate enough to hear what he said. With the pain of the bullet wounds, the blood loss, and the pain of my Spidey-sense it was really hard for me to just stay conscious. There was more of the conversation but I it was taking more and more concentration to remain awake.I was losing the battle of consciousness quickly as I faintly heard the Hulk roaring before I fell unconscious.

Pain, I was in pain. I slowly gained consciousness and wished I stayed asleep, or in this case unconscious. Both my shoulder and foot were throbbing but I no longer felt the bullets in my body. That was a good thing, but my thigh had joined in on the throbbing. I apparently got shot a third time while I was out. It was good sign that I did not feel the restraints that were on me when I fell asleep. A bad indicator was the fact that I was laying down on something hard. If the Avengers succeeded wouldn't I be on a bed right now?

Opening my eyes, I was confused. Why was I in a cave? I looked around and saw that I was close to the entrance but hidden by a piece of the cave that stuck out. By the position of the sun it was morning. That helped little as I could have been out for a day or multiple days both times I had lost consciousness. As I became more aware, I noticed that there was someone in the cave with me.

"Bruce?" I questioned, very confused on how Bruce and I came to be in a cave without anyone and Bruce devoid of a shirt. The shirt and the sound I heard before I blacked out meant that the Hulk made an appearance. There was just the other weird things about this situation that I needed some clarification. How did Bruce remove the bullets if he Hulked out? I really doubt that the Hulk took the time to gently pick up and carry around a medical kit, let alone one that was stocked enough to deal with bullet wounds.

Bruce was by my side as soon as I spoke, checking over my wounds to see if I made them reopen and everything was good.

"What happened?" I asked

"The details aren't too clear but what I know is that once I heard you getting shot over the microphones that were on the other Avengers, I immediately let the Hulk take over. The rest is a blur as I it always is when the Hulk takes over. I know the Hulk was not gentile when it came to Ross and all his pawns. I will say though that the fact that Ross being hurt does not bother me at all. I'm not sure if the other Avengers got hurt in the crossfire or not."

"The fact that the Hulk took me away from there without hurting me any further shows that Hulk does try to protect people. If Hulk protected me, who hasn't known you for that long, then I'm sure that he didn't hurt the other Avengers."

"It's hard to tell if Hulk protects the people close to me. One moment he is saving a person close to me, the next he is punching Thor and the rest of the Avengers." There was some silence after that. Bruce had finished up checking my wounds and replacing the bandages.

"How long do you think it will take for the rest to find us?" I asked to break the silence. Bruce looked like he was about to answer before someone interrupted him.

"They are going to take a while considering they are buried under the remains of the base that the Hulk destroyed." None other than Ross is in front of us. "It also doesn't help that I had the remains sprayed with a strong sleeping gas. It is always handy to have a gas mask on hand."

Bruce automatically got into a defensive stance in front of me. Despite not seeing bruce's face I could tell the he was barely holding back the Hulk.

"You won't hurt him any further than you already have." Bruce practically growled, showing just how close the Hulk was from taking over.

"He wouldn't have been hurt had you exchanged yourself for him like I told you to. He wouldn't have even gotten into this situation if you hadn't befriended him." Ross pointed out.

"I also wouldn't have been shot three times if you hadn't kidnapped me and then told your minions to shoot me. So this whole situation would have been avoided if you weren't a complete psycho." I could not help but input.

Contrary to the confidence that was in that statement, I was freaking out. This was the worst thing that could have possibly happened at this point. I was not in any condition to even crawl. There was not a thing I could do, despite my abilities, if I wanted to. Someone else was going to get hurt because of me. Another person I could lose due to my selfishness.


	14. Chapter 14

I had to protect Bruce. It didn't matter that almost everything hurt, I had to stand up and protect Bruce. Ignoring the overwhelming pain, I slowly tried to get up onto my feet. I was only able to make it to one knee before I collapsed back onto the ground. My body could not keep up with what my mind wanted it to do. Even with adrenalin, my body could not take the strain of doing much more than the basic functions needed to live.

"Peter!" Bruce's worry was clear in his voice. "You need to rest you can't risk losing any more blood."

"It's amazing that he is conscious with the amount of blood he has lost. It is also a wonder that he is able to almost get to his feet with three gunshot wounds. While they were most likely stitched up, he still should be in too much pain to even think clearly. Is he another super powered freak?"

"Leave him alone." It was easy to infer from Bruce's tone that he was dangerously close to transforming.

If I wasn't in so much pain when Ross said that last statement I probably would have had a panic attack. With the pain being overwhelming and the adrenaline rushing through my veins, I was barely able to concentrate to hear the words.

After that things started to get a little hazy. Ross must have made said or done something that set Bruce off because I heard the roar of the Hulk. Then the Hulk grabbed me and I lost the fight to stay conscious.

The amount of times I have woken up without falling asleep lately is getting ridiculous. At least I was on a bed this time.

"He's waking up." A woman's voice that sounded suspiciously like Gran's was the first thing I heard. Hands helped me up and put pillows behind me so I was in a sitting position. My shoulder throbbed a bit, but I was not in too much pain.

"Gran?" My voice came out raspy and cracked. A straw was put in between my lips and I opened my eyes to see Gran holding a cup of water to my lips. When I saw that it was not an enemy trying to make me drink something unknown, I eagerly drank from the straw. As I finished off the water my stomach made a noise akin to a dying monster.

Gran's laughter was refreshing to hear as the last time I saw her we were being kidnapped. That fact did not keep me from blushing though as I heard more laughs join here. Looking around, I saw that the Avengers were in the room as well.

"Let's get some food in you kid. What do you think of pizza? I'm in the mood for pizza." Tony did not stop for me to answer. "Jarvis add four cheese pizzas to our normal order."

"Tony Peter is not going to eat four cheese pizzas by himself." Bruce's voice sounded exasperated, "In fact I advise against it."

"They are not all for Peter. We all have been neglecting ourselves a little waiting for Peter to wake up. It is going to take more than are usual order to fill us all up. Besides, it is not like it will go to waste in this place."

"I think I might eat all four anyways." I inputted. "My body needs more food than normal, and with all the injuries I have I will be needing a lot of food. While I heal faster than regular people, my body needs energy in order to heal. I'm not sure if I'm explaining this well." I was extremely nervous about telling them about my powers.

"You can heal fast but only if you have enough calories in order to do so." Bruce said. "It makes perfect sense."

"We will talk about the fact that you are Spider-Man later, for now just know that we will not abandon you." Steve promised.

"But-," I started.

"Like I said we will talk about this later. This whole situation was never your fault. Ross was after the Hulk and you got caught up into it." Steve stated. "If anything you are in more danger for being around us than we are for hanging out with you." It was clear that any talk about it was going to be stopped by the stubbornness that is Captain America, so I focused on something else.

"How are you Gran? They didn't hurt you did they?" I asked.

"It takes more than a couple of goons to take me down. I wasn't a Secret agent for nothing." Gran responded. Whatever answer I was expecting, it wasn't even remotely close to that answer.

"When we got to the facility that you were being kept in she was already out of wherever they placed her and she was searching for you. There was a bunch of goons lying on the ground behind her." Natasha stated with what sounded like a little respect.

"Anyways, you should be worrying more about yourself. Getting shot three times is not something a lot of people live through." Gran told me.

"You are strong young warrior!" Thor, who was actually silent until now, boomed.

"The pizza is here sir." Jarvis's voice came before I could say anything. Tony immediately went to get it with Steve following close behind.

"That was quick." Gran commented. It was true not even twenty minutes had passed.

"Stark has a pizzeria on the cafeteria floor that is equipped with the best technology that anyone can have." Clint informed.

Tony, Stave, and a robot came in the room with a good twenty pizzas. Along with carrying the some of the pizzas Steve also had at least five bags hanging from his forearms. There looked to be sodas, along with plates and cups in the bags. They brought them to my desk that had moved, and chairs had been added around it. It was a tight fit and Gran and Bruce were sitting on the edges of my bed. Two pizzas were put on my lap and a liter of soda was put on my nightstand.

"You are to at least finish these off. While it is not exactly the best meal for you to eat right now. From what I have gathered from your abilities you need the calories right now." Bruce said while getting two slices for himself.

I just nodded as I was too busy eating my way through the first pizza. In no time I had finished the first pizza and half of the soda. At this point I slowed down a little as I finally had something in my stomach. I looked around to see Thor on at least his second pizza, because there was no way he was still on his first slice. Steve was on his fifth piece of pizza, given the open box in front of him. Clint and Natasha were sharing a pizza and were almost through it. Surprisingly, Bruce was finishing up his first pizza and was had another underneath that one. Gran and Tony were a mystery as they stole pieces from others' boxes. Maybe I will actually fit in around here.

"Can I have another pizza and can someone explain what happened while I was out?" I hated to ask for more food but Tony had said to order four more than usual and I was still hungry.

"Well Ross was a General that was after the Hulk in order to try to mass produce the Hulk. Apparently he did not take the hint to back off when I spoke to him." Tony was the one who answered. "After learning of you, he thought it was a great idea to piss off the Hulk by kidnapping you. Luckily, I placed many trackers on you that no one removed while they held you hostage. We had Natasha infiltrate the place and Clint went in the air vents in order to gather information and find out where you were. We met up with badass grandma over here."

"Language!" Both Steve and Gran scolded.

"Anyway," Tony continued. "General Ross threatened us with you once we got inside. When he had you shot a second time." There was a collective flinch in the room and Bruce had a constipated face on. "The green guy did not like that, destroyed half the base before taking off with you. One of the goons got in a lucky shot in the chaos and shot you in the thigh. Ross followed your blood trail while we unburied ourselves from the rubble. When we got to the cave Gran had already knocked everyone unconscious. We fixed you up before bringing you here. You have been out for a day."

"Ross has been dishonorably discharged from the military and is going to trial for abuse of authority, kidnapping and grievous bodily harm." Clint added.

"Those won't be the only charges by the time Tony's lawyers are through with him." Natasha said with a smile that was honestly, a bit chilling.

"I have also made sure that the press, or anyone for that matter, knows that it was you who Ross kidnapped and why he took you. The official story is that he caught me off guard when I was checking out one of the branches of my business. I had my briefcase suit, but I had been tweaking the bracelets that call my armor and they were still in my lab. Ross managed to have his goons ambush me in a way that I could not activate my suit in time and knocked me out so I didn't get a chance to." Tony explained.

"How are you going to charge him with grievous bodily harm if the story doesn't have me in it?" I asked. "Also why are you doing so much for me? Surely people will think that you are an easy target to kidnap."

"For your first question, people don't become corrupt overnight kid. He used violence to ensure that his troops would follow through with his craziness. For your second question is because we care out you kid. You have been through a lot and deserve to have something nice happen to you for a change. Also we allowed you to get kidnapped when we were supposed to be protecting you. As for being an easy target, I will prove them wrong very quickly." Tony replied.

"Peter you are such a great kid and we are going to tell you that until you believe it." Gran complimented me. There was a silence that was only broken by the sounds of eating as I did not know what to say.

"Getting away from all the emotional stuff, you are not allowed to go anywhere without at least two Avengers and five trackers on you." Tony exclaimed.

"What! But what if you are all busy?" I protested.

"There are plenty of things that you can do in the tower to pass the time until two of us are free." Tony commented proudly.

"Tony, two Avengers is excessive, he will only need one of us until he is strong enough to protect himself." Bruce corrected. "Until then he needs to stay off his feet for a week and work on gaining some weight."

"Is this one of those things that I get no say in?" I asked to no one specific.

"Yes," almost everyone in the room chorused.

I was given another pizza that I finished off while those who were done eating made small talk. Once I was done eating I noticed that it was becoming harder and harder to keep my eyes open.

"Why am I so tired? I have barely been awake the past couple days," I asked Bruce.

"Your body is trying to heal itself, it can use more energy to heal instead of keeping you awake. Alright everyone, Peter needs to sleep. We can work out who watches over him later. Jarvis can do it until we figure out who is first." Bruce declared.

"Hey, Bruce." I murmured sleepily.

"Yes, Peter?" Bruce answered quietly.

"You won't leave me like everyone else did right?"

"Peter I will try my best to never go where you can't follow."


	15. Runaway 15

I did wake up a couple times throughout the night due to nightmares but I was able to go back to sleep fairly easily so it wasn’t so bad. Every time I woke up there was someone there comforting me, which might have been the reason I was able to go to sleep so easily.

Once I woke up all the way my body was feeling a lot better than the night before. Someone must have laced me down before they left because I was no longer in the sitting position. I just laid there for a while, processing all that has happened recently. The silence was ruined when my stomach once again let out an angry sounding gurgle. There was a chuckle from my left and I looked over to see Bruce sitting in a chair next to my bed.

“Let’s get you something to eat.” He said while fetching a chair that floated! Seeing my expression he explained, “Tony thinks normal wheelchairs aren’t cool enough so he created a hover chair.”

“I don’t think as many people would protest to being put in one of those compared to an actual wheelchair.” I couldn’t keep the amazement out of my voice. “Until the newness wears off and it’s normal.”

“Well almost anything is interesting until it is not new anymore.” Bruce said as he smoothly helped me into the coolest chair I have ever seen. “To move around just use the joystick or have someone push you around. If you don’t want someone to able to move you, press the blue button. Press the blue button again to allow people to move you again.”

“This is awesome! How did Tony come up with this?” I asked as I tested out moving the chair.

“He was confined to a wheelchair for a couple of weeks after an injury during a mission. The first thing he did once he was out of it was invent this.” Bruce explained as he led me to the main kitchen.

“I can’t see him willingly being in a wheelchair for any long period of time.” I commented.

“Well he was supposed to be in the wheelchair longer than that and the only reason he lasted as long as he did was that both Natasha and Pepper made some poorly veiled threats.” Bruce admitted.

“I wasn’t trying to be stubble.” Natasha remarked. We had reached the kitchen just in time for her to hear the end of conversation.”

I wasn’t either. I told him exactly what would happen if he didn’t listen to me.” Pepper chipped in from where she was sitting. “Just like when I told him this morning what would happen if he doesn’t keep me in the loop with what is going on when a situation like this happens.”

“You were the first one I told outside the Avengers!” Tony exclaimed.

“You told me because you needed me to schedule a press release.” Pepper sounded a little frightening as she said this.

“Hey Peter, how do you like your eggs?” Steve called from the kitchen.

“Scrambled is fine.” I told him. 

“I got a little occupied with trying to find Peter and I didn’t think to contact you until I thought about how to deal with the press when they ask about this incident.” Tony reasoned.

“He was pretty panicked when he was trying to find Peter. Finding out that he was kidnapped did not help.” Clint admitted.

“I think that we can all agree that with the exception of Thor, we were all panicking at least a little bit.” Bruce pointed out.

“I do not panic.” Natasha’s voice sounded deadly.

“Well you might not have panicked, but you were at least worried about Peter. You showed it by how vicious your suggestions were when we were coming up with a plan to save Peter.” Tony argued. “That is one of the few ways you show that you are fond of someone.”

“You were worried about me? But we just met a couple days ago and have barely made any conversation with each other!” I asked, a little amazed.

“Peter we all worry about you. You’re a kid that is too kind and has been through too much. It is hard not to wrap you in a blanket and keep you away from the rest of the world. You are smart, funny, and very loyal to those that you love.” Pepper said in a voice that reminded me of Aunt May.

“No serious talk at meals. Though I can assure you that we will be continuing this conversation.” Steve informed the room. He was carrying two trays full of scrambled eggs. He set them down on the table before returning to the kitchen. 

I was in a frozen state of shock and on the verge of tears once again. Bruce seemed to realize this and got me a plate full of scrambled eggs.

“Would you like ketchup?” Bruce asked facing me. I simply shook my head, not really listening to the question. After staring at my eggs for a couple minutes, my stomach reminded me of my hunger by letting out a loud growl. I blushed before picking up my utensils and digging in.

“Where did Gran go?” I ask after swallowing a mouthful of eggs.  
“She went to go water all her plants and check up on the shop. She will be here later today. I have been texting her to keep her updated.” Natasha answered.

Once breakfast was done Bruce brought me over to the living room where he deposited me on a couch. He placed many pillows around me to make sure I wasn't putting too much pressure on any of my wounds. Everyone gathered around and sat so that they were facing me mostly. 

“Fellow Avengers I have returned from seeing Lady Jane!” Thor broke the awkward silence. “It is truly great to see that you are awake young warrior.” He added on after he saw me.

“Hello Thor, we were just going to talk to Peter about that the fact that he is always welcome here and none of his self-doubt can change that.” Steve explained.

“We are also going to talk about how he can’t just assume things. He needs to talk to us first before leaving so we can make sure he doesn’t go back to living on the streets.” Tony added on. 

“You can’t get rid of us that easily.” Clint commented.

“What Clint means is that we view you as someone important to us and we would worry a lot if we weren’t able to make sure you are alright.” Pepper corrected.

“If you allow us to, we would like to become your family.” Bruce admitted in a gentle voice. “I have adopted you on paper, but everyone here could become your aunts and uncles. I can be too if you are uncomfortable with me being a father to you. I would love to be, but only if you want me to be. I know you think that it is dangerous being around you, but it is also dangerous for you to be around us. You got shot three times and were close to bleeding to death because you were seen with us.”

“Besides we are superheroes, we deal with danger all the time, a little more is not going to kill us.” Clint pointed out.

“It takes a lot to take me down son of Park!” Thor bellowed.

“If you think that I will let something kill me so easily, then you obviously don’t know me very well.” Natasha said with that creepy smile of hers.

“Someone would have to get through the Hulk to kill me. He is very hard to injure, it would take a lot more than an alien invasion to kill him.” Bruce reassured with a bitter smile.

“Multiple people have tried to kill me for many reasons and I am still here. I am not just skilled with a bow.” Clint bragged.

“Please Katniss, I have had more almost-deaths than you and I am still in perfect condition. Besides I lead a rocket into space and the Hulk scared me awake.” Tony probably meant that to come out teasing but the last part had a somber tone to it.

“He is never doing anything like that ever again. Also, if I can survive for almost seventy years in ice, then anything that you bring with you will be nothing in comparison. You should stop worrying so much about others and worry about yourself for a change.” Steve interrupted what looked to be the beginnings of a fight. “If anything happens to you we will be greatly affected. Despite knowing you for a short while, we have grown close to you and some of us have been more open to you than we have each other.”

I would have probably started crying if I didn’t still have some doubt about whether they could protect themselves. It was stupid; they are superheroes. If anyone could it would be them. Yet, I could not get rid of a little bit of doubt.

“Since you came along I have noticed everyone is more relaxed than they were before. At least until you left.” Bruce commented, not aware of my thoughts.

“Speaking of which, this is when we talk about Spider-man.” Steve declared. “First off, do not run off like that. You should talk to us. We will not throw you out without an extreme reason. Spider-man helped people, and of you think that you being him is going to make us think any less of you than you don’t know us very well.”

“I don’t know you very well. I’ve only met you a few days ago.” The words came out of my mouth without me giving it much thought.

“That will change, but please give us the chance in order for us to get to know you better and for you to get to know us better.” Bruce responded.

“Back to you being Spider-man, why did you stop? Yes, you were on the streets but that doesn’t cause someone to stop being a hero totally. ” Steve asked while steering the conversation back to where it was.

I looked around at the Avengers faces. They were mostly looking at me with curiosity and a hint of worry. There was nothing that hinted to any negative emotions. So I took a deep breath and told them everything, starting with the spider that bit me. After I got started everything came out. I couldn’t stop myself if I wanted to. It was nice to tell someone everything. Even with Gwen I left out things because I didn’t want to worry her.

“That is a most adventurous tale! It is only right to share a tale of my own about one of my adventures after you shared your own.” Thor declared once I was done. There were tears on my cheeks that had started sometime during my explanation, that he either ignored or didn’t see.

“Later Goldilocks, we have to address some things first.” Tony stated before Thor got started on his story. “First of all, your uncle’s death was not your fault. You were being a typical teenager and trying out your new toy, in this case, your powers. There are a lot of people who stand by and do nothing when someone is in trouble who could do something. If you had tried to stop him it might have been you who died instead of your uncle. You were still getting control over your powers and might have seriously harmed that robber or worse. Don’t think the what if’s too much. You never know what could have happened had you tried to stop that robber.”

“Second of all,” Steve picked up were Tony stopped. “The captain and a lot more people would have died had you not interfered with the lizard. All of us were away and didn’t get there in time. Even after being shot, you were able to get the whole incident under control. Also Captain Stacy knew the risks that came with his job and he still kept doing it. The police and other first responders know that their lives are at risk, they are heroes without the showy costumes.”

“Third of all, Gwen also knew that there were risks to dating you and still decided to stay with you. She would know exactly what she was in for after the lizard incident. You tried to save her and you should know one of the basic facts of being a hero is that you can’t save everyone.” Natasha continued the list.

“Fourth of all, your aunt did not die because of you. She died because of a heart attack. There was no warning because when most women have a heart attack it is much more serious than a man’s and more likely to be fatal. There is a good chance that even if you were standing next to her when it happened, that she still would have died.” Bruce revealed.

“Last of all if you ever decide to continue being Spider-man you need to train with us, allow Tony to make you a better suit, and make sure you have a way of contacting us when you think you’re in trouble.” Clint finished.

I was full on sobbing at this point. They didn’t think any less of me for being Spider-Man or anything that I had done in the past.

“Peter you may have lost your family, but will you be willing to allow us to be your new family?” Bruce asked me with sincere eyes. I could only manage to barely nod through my tears.


End file.
